Reservoir · United States
Lake Lanier
Reservoir in Georgia, United States
- Area
- 134km²
- Average depth
- 24m
- Elevation
- 327m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 545km
- Volume
- 3.2km³
Lake Lanier is a reservoir in United States. It covers 134 km². On average it is 24 m deep. Its surface lies 327 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Lanier?
The water is warmest in July, around 29 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 8 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from May to October: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 33 °C on average in July and 10 °C in January. The driest month is October (90 mm of rain), the wettest December (133 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (72 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 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 105 | 11 | 5.3 | 9 |
| February | 8 | 9 | 13 | 1 | 116 | 10 | 5.2 | 9 |
| March | 11 | 13 | 17 | 5 | 116 | 11 | 6.2 | 9 |
| April | 16 | 19 | 22 | 10 | 96 | 10 | 7.7 | 9 |
| May | 22 | 25 | 27 | 15 | 100 | 12 | 8.2 | 7 |
| June | 27 | 29 | 31 | 19 | 112 | 16 | 8.6 | 6 |
| July | 29 | 29 | 33 | 21 | 119 | 18 | 8.1 | 6 |
| August | 28 | 29 | 32 | 20 | 110 | 16 | 7.6 | 6 |
| September | 26 | 27 | 29 | 17 | 96 | 9 | 7.2 | 7 |
| October | 22 | 24 | 23 | 10 | 90 | 7 | 6.8 | 8 |
| November | 17 | 19 | 17 | 4 | 98 | 9 | 6.1 | 8 |
| December | 12 | 14 | 12 | 1 | 133 | 11 | 4.6 | 8 |
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 19 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 2,677 km² of land.
- About 65 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 13.3 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Lanier
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 24beaches and swimming spots
- 11campsites
Van Pug South Campground, Old Federal Campground, Ducket Mill, Don Carter State Park, Shady Grove Campground and 6 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 55marinas and slipways
Shady Grove Campground Boat Launch, Bolding Mill Boat Ramp, Holiday On Lake Lanier and 52 more
- —ferry piers
- 2viewpoints
- 1hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Lanier Islands Legacy Lodge
- —fishing spots
- 21restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Gainesville38,712 people
- Flowery Branch6,683 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK), 45 km in a straight line.
Car hire at ATL airport (Atlanta)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 | 10.4 | 12.7 | 17.3 | 22.1 | 26.6 | 30.8 | 32.6 | 32.3 | 29.0 | 23.2 | 16.9 | 12.1 |
| 2020 | +2.4 | +0.5 | +2.2 | −0.9 | −2.3 | −2.0 | +1.4 | −0.3 | −2.2 | +0.2 | +1.8 | −0.7 |
| 2021 | +0.6 | −0.5 | +1.4 | −0.5 | −1.1 | −0.5 | −0.4 | −0.2 | −1.0 | −0.3 | −1.6 | +4.2 |
| 2022 | −0.9 | +2.2 | +1.3 | −0.2 | +1.4 | +3.3 | +1.3 | −0.6 | −0.1 | +0.3 | +1.0 | −1.2 |
| 2023 | +3.2 | +4.1 | +0.8 | −0.4 | −2.3 | −2.3 | +0.7 | +1.1 | +0.6 | +0.9 | +0.7 | +1.5 |
| 2024 | −0.4 | +2.4 | +1.4 | +0.6 | +0.4 | +2.1 | +1.3 | +1.5 | +0.1 | +0.8 | +2.7 | ±0.0 |
| 2025 | −2.4 | +2.7 | +1.7 | +1.9 | −1.2 | ±0.0 | +2.6 | −2.4 | +0.8 | +0.2 | +1.3 | +0.8 |
+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 (Q3295796) · 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.
