Reservoir · United States
Lake Mendota
Mendota
Lake in Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
- Area
- 41.1km²
- Average depth
- 4.8m
- Elevation
- 258m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 49km
- Volume
- 0.197km³
Lake Mendota is a reservoir in United States. It covers 41.1 km². On average it is 4.8 m deep. Its surface lies 258 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Mendota?
The water is warmest in July, around 25 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from June to September: comfortable for most swimmers.
The lake usually freezes over for about 95 days a year, from around 16 December to 20 March.
On the shore, afternoons reach 28 °C on average in July and -3 °C in January. The driest month is January (36 mm of rain), the wettest June (134 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (65 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 | — | -3 | -12 | 36 | 7 | 4.1 | 20 |
| February | Ice | — | -2 | -11 | 41 | 6 | 5.9 | 20 |
| March | Ice | — | 6 | -4 | 59 | 8 | 6.4 | 19 |
| April | 7 | 11 | 14 | 2 | 98 | 11 | 6.3 | 20 |
| May | 15 | 19 | 20 | 8 | 108 | 13 | 7.3 | 17 |
| June | 22 | 24 | 25 | 14 | 134 | 14 | 8.3 | 15 |
| July | 25 | 25 | 28 | 17 | 102 | 13 | 9.1 | 13 |
| August | 24 | 25 | 27 | 16 | 111 | 12 | 7.8 | 13 |
| September | 21 | 23 | 23 | 11 | 93 | 10 | 6.9 | 15 |
| October | 15 | 18 | 15 | 4 | 80 | 9 | 4.8 | 18 |
| November | 7 | 11 | 7 | -2 | 56 | 7 | 3.9 | 18 |
| December | Ice | — | -1 | -9 | 51 | 7 | 2.9 | 18 |
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 12 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 640 km² of land.
- About 6.0 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Mendota
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 25beaches and swimming spots
B.B. Clarke Beach, Indianola Beach, Spring Harbor Beach, James Madison Beach, Warner Park Beach and 20 more
- 1campsites
Mendota County Park Campground
- 6boat hire and water-sport clubs
Mooring field #1, Mooring field #2, Mooring field #3, Marshall Boats, Hoofers Sailing Club and 1 more
- 28marinas and slipways
Law Park Boat Launch, Shorewood Hills Boathouse, Skipper Buds, Maple Bluff Marina, Shorewood Hills Marina and 23 more
- —ferry piers
- 19viewpoints
Frautschi (Second) Point, Observatory Hill Overlook, Monona Terrace Rooftop Terrace, Raymer's Cove, Picnic Point and 14 more
- 22hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Wisconsin Union Hotel, Marquette Hotel, Madison Concourse Hotel, AC Hotel Madison Downtown, Edgewater Hotel and 17 more
- —fishing spots
- 274restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Madison280,305 people
- Middleton18,979 people
- Shorewood Hills2,037 people
- Maple Bluff1,340 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Dane County Regional Truax Field (MSN), 7 km in a straight line.
Car hire at MSN airport (Madison)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 | -3.4 | -1.5 | 6.0 | 13.5 | 19.9 | 25.3 | 27.9 | 26.9 | 23.0 | 14.8 | 6.8 | -0.7 |
| 2020 | +2.4 | +0.4 | +0.8 | −1.9 | −1.7 | +0.7 | −0.1 | −0.3 | −2.6 | −2.8 | +2.6 | +1.0 |
| 2021 | +1.1 | −5.2 | +3.1 | +1.0 | +0.1 | +2.7 | +0.8 | +2.1 | +2.4 | +3.2 | −0.2 | +3.3 |
| 2022 | −2.3 | +0.4 | +0.1 | −2.4 | +1.2 | +0.6 | +0.8 | +0.3 | −0.3 | +0.7 | +0.5 | −1.6 |
| 2023 | +3.0 | +3.0 | −1.2 | +0.4 | +1.5 | +1.2 | +1.2 | +2.0 | +2.3 | +1.2 | +0.6 | +4.2 |
| 2024 | +0.1 | +7.0 | +2.5 | +1.2 | +2.1 | +0.2 | −1.6 | −0.7 | +2.5 | +4.1 | +2.1 | +1.2 |
| 2025 | −0.4 | −0.2 | +4.1 | +0.8 | −0.3 | +1.2 | +0.4 | −1.1 | +1.8 | +3.3 | +0.8 | −1.3 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
United States13.3 km² · 7 km away25°maxGeneva LakeUnited States21.4 km² · 94 km away24°maxLake WinnebagoUnited States646 km² · 129 km away24°maxLake MichiganUnited States57,727 km² · 201 km away22°maxBde Maka SkaUnited States1.6 km² · 372 km away26°maxLake MinnetonkaUnited States31.1 km² · 388 km away25°maxAbout 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 (Q1801004) · 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.
