Lagoon · United States
Lake Merritt
Lagoon in Oakland, California, United States
- Area
- 0.5km²
- Average depth
- 3.9m
- Elevation
- -1m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 3.8km
- Volume
- 0.002km³
Lake Merritt is a lagoon in United States. It covers 0.5 km². On average it is 3.9 m deep. Its surface lies 1 m below sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The water
How warm is Lake Merritt?
The water is warmest in August, around 25 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 11 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from April to October: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 23 °C on average in September and 13 °C in January. The driest month is July (1 mm of rain), the wettest December (138 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (101 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 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 6 | 100 | 11 | 5.1 | 12 |
| February | 13 | 15 | 14 | 7 | 102 | 11 | 6.3 | 13 |
| March | 17 | 19 | 15 | 8 | 82 | 10 | 7.6 | 13 |
| April | 20 | 22 | 16 | 8 | 42 | 6 | 9.6 | 14 |
| May | 23 | 23 | 19 | 9 | 18 | 4 | 11.5 | 14 |
| June | 24 | 25 | 21 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 13.3 | 14 |
| July | 25 | 25 | 22 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 13.3 | 13 |
| August | 25 | 25 | 22 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 12.0 | 13 |
| September | 24 | 25 | 23 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 10.7 | 12 |
| October | 20 | 22 | 21 | 11 | 29 | 4 | 8.5 | 11 |
| November | 15 | 17 | 17 | 8 | 62 | 8 | 6.4 | 11 |
| December | 11 | 13 | 13 | 6 | 138 | 12 | 4.6 | 12 |
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 5 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 23 km² of land.
- About 0.2 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Merritt
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 4beaches and swimming spots
- —campsites
- 7boat hire and water-sport clubs
Lake Merritt Rowing Club, East Bay Rowing Club, Artemis Rowing, California Canoe and Kayak, Lake Merritt Boating Center and 2 more
- 6marinas and slipways
Portobello Marina, Oakland Marinas - Oakland Alameda Estuary, Oakland Marinas - North Embarcadero Cove, 5th Avenue Marina and 2 more
- —ferry piers
- 2viewpoints
- 18hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Oaktown Roost, AC Hotel by Marriott Oakland Downtown, Residence Inn By Marriott Oakland Downtown, Oakland Marriott City Center, Jack London Inn Oakland and 13 more
- —fishing spots
- 373restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Oakland419,267 people
- Piedmont11,376 people
- Chinatown3,425 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK), 10 km in a straight line.
Car hire at OAK airport (Oakland)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 | 12.9 | 14.0 | 15.4 | 16.5 | 18.6 | 21.2 | 22.0 | 22.5 | 23.1 | 21.0 | 16.7 | 13.1 |
| 2020 | +0.4 | +2.1 | −0.4 | +1.5 | +2.6 | +1.9 | +0.5 | +1.8 | +2.0 | +3.4 | ±0.0 | +1.4 |
| 2021 | +1.0 | +1.1 | −0.2 | +1.1 | +1.9 | +0.8 | +0.3 | +0.6 | ±0.0 | −1.3 | +0.4 | −1.0 |
| 2022 | +1.0 | +1.5 | +0.8 | +0.9 | +1.8 | +1.6 | −0.4 | +1.0 | +1.6 | −0.3 | −1.3 | −0.8 |
| 2023 | −0.3 | −1.8 | −3.0 | −0.5 | −1.4 | −2.3 | +0.3 | +1.5 | −1.3 | +1.5 | +1.1 | +1.9 |
| 2024 | +1.2 | +0.2 | −0.6 | +0.9 | +1.2 | +1.2 | +2.0 | +0.4 | +0.6 | +2.2 | −1.0 | +1.3 |
| 2025 | +0.8 | +0.2 | −0.5 | +0.7 | +1.5 | −0.7 | −1.5 | +1.1 | +0.4 | −0.2 | +0.5 | +0.2 |
+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 (Q3623431) · 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.
