
Lake · Finland
Kolima
Lake in the countryside of Central Finland
- Area
- 102km²
- Average depth
- 12m
- Elevation
- 105m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 185km
- Volume
- 1.3km³
Kolima is a lake in Finland. It covers 102 km². On average it is 12 m deep. Its surface lies 105 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Kolima?
The water is warmest in July, around 20 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more in July: comfortable for most swimmers.
The lake usually freezes over for about 143 days a year, from around 24 November to 15 April.
On the shore, afternoons reach 21 °C on average in July and -8 °C in January. The driest month is March (41 mm of rain), the wettest July (111 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (110 readings). Shallow bays and beaches are often warmer.
From above
The whole lake from space
Month by month
The year at the lake, month by month
Not a forecast: these are averages over many years. Water is the 2013–2021 average; air, rain, sun and wind are the 1991–2020 average.
Water: 2013–2021 averageClimate: 1991–2020 average
| Month | Water°C | Water high°C | Air high°C | Air low°C | Rainmm | Rainy daysdays | Sunh/day | Windkm/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | Ice | — | -8 | -13 | 52 | 13 | 0.7 | 10 |
| February | Ice | — | -7 | -13 | 41 | 10 | 2.4 | 10 |
| March | Ice | — | -2 | -9 | 41 | 12 | 5.8 | 10 |
| April | Ice | — | 5 | -2 | 52 | 12 | 7.2 | 9 |
| May | 9 | 13 | 13 | 4 | 75 | 13 | 8.1 | 9 |
| June | 16 | 19 | 18 | 9 | 89 | 16 | 8.8 | 8 |
| July | 20 | 20 | 21 | 13 | 111 | 18 | 8.1 | 7 |
| August | 18 | 20 | 18 | 11 | 92 | 17 | 6.6 | 8 |
| September | 14 | 16 | 13 | 6 | 76 | 14 | 3.9 | 8 |
| October | 9 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 76 | 14 | 1.5 | 8 |
| November | 2 | 5 | -1 | -4 | 67 | 15 | 0.2 | 9 |
| December | Ice | — | -5 | -9 | 62 | 14 | 0.3 | 10 |
Water: LakeTEMP (Landsat 8, 2013–2021). Air, rain, sun and wind: NASA POWER, 1991–2020 averages. A rainy day has at least 1 mm of rain. Sunshine hours are derived from measured solar radiation.
Size & depth
How big, how deep
- On average, water stays in the lake for about 3.8 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 1,299 km² of land.
- About 11 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 5.2 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Kolima
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 2beaches and swimming spots
- 1campsites
Niemenharjun Matkailukeskus
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 2marinas and slipways
Ukonniemen kalasatama
- —ferry piers
- —viewpoints
- 2hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Koliman leirikeskus, Koto Hotelli Pihtipudas
- —fishing spots
- 4restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Pihtipudas3,697 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Jyväskylä Airport (JYV), 101 km in a straight line.
Car hire at KOK airport (Kokkola / Kruunupyy)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Recent years
How each month compared
Afternoon high on the shore. The first row is the reference, the 1991–2020 average in °C; the years below show the difference from it: warmer in orange, cooler in blue.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–2020 average | -7.8 | -6.7 | -2.1 | 5.1 | 13.1 | 17.5 | 20.6 | 18.3 | 12.8 | 4.7 | -0.9 | -4.8 |
| 2020 | +6.6 | +4.8 | +2.8 | −1.3 | −2.5 | +3.9 | −2.3 | +0.3 | +0.8 | +1.8 | +2.8 | +1.2 |
| 2021 | −3.1 | −3.5 | −0.2 | +0.6 | −1.1 | +4.4 | +2.5 | −1.4 | −2.6 | +1.7 | −0.2 | −3.7 |
| 2022 | +1.3 | +2.5 | +1.2 | −1.6 | −0.8 | +1.9 | −0.2 | +2.0 | −2.0 | +2.2 | −0.7 | −1.4 |
| 2023 | +3.3 | +2.2 | −1.2 | −2.6 | +0.4 | +1.9 | −1.6 | +1.3 | +3.0 | −2.0 | −4.6 | −4.3 |
| 2024 | −2.8 | +0.2 | +0.7 | −4.1 | +3.1 | +2.9 | +1.0 | +1.8 | +3.1 | +2.3 | +1.8 | +0.9 |
| 2025 | +2.4 | +2.8 | +4.1 | +1.8 | −1.5 | −0.8 | +3.0 | −0.3 | +2.7 | +2.2 | +2.0 | +3.1 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
About these numbers
| Outline, area, depth, volume | HydroLAKES v1.0 (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|
| Water temperature and ice | LakeTEMP v1 (Korver et al. 2024), Landsat 8 2013–2021 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Air, rain, sun, wind | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 · public domain |
| Names and description | Wikidata (Q1779173) · CC0 |
| Around the shore | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.