Lake · United States
Lake Minnetonka
Minnetonka
Collection of lakes, bays and areas in Minnesota, USA
- Area
- 31.1km²
- Max depth
- 34m
- Average depth
- 6.7m
- Elevation
- 280m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 81km
- Volume
- 0.209km³
Lake Minnetonka is a lake in United States. It covers 31.1 km². On average it is 6.7 m deep, and 34 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 280 m above 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 Minnetonka?
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 August: comfortable for most swimmers.
The lake usually freezes over for about 126 days a year, from around 3 December to 7 April.
On the shore, afternoons reach 29 °C on average in July and -6 °C in January. The driest month is January (15 mm of rain), the wettest June (122 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (67 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 | — | -6 | -15 | 15 | 5 | 4.9 | 19 |
| February | Ice | — | -3 | -14 | 25 | 4 | 6.9 | 19 |
| March | Ice | — | 5 | -6 | 41 | 7 | 7.0 | 19 |
| April | 3 | 8 | 13 | 1 | 78 | 10 | 6.9 | 19 |
| May | 13 | 17 | 20 | 8 | 106 | 13 | 7.2 | 18 |
| June | 21 | 24 | 26 | 14 | 122 | 14 | 8.3 | 16 |
| July | 25 | 26 | 29 | 17 | 88 | 14 | 9.4 | 14 |
| August | 24 | 26 | 27 | 15 | 99 | 12 | 7.9 | 14 |
| September | 20 | 22 | 23 | 11 | 82 | 10 | 6.5 | 16 |
| October | 13 | 17 | 14 | 2 | 66 | 8 | 4.7 | 18 |
| November | 5 | 9 | 5 | -4 | 30 | 6 | 3.6 | 18 |
| December | Ice | — | -3 | -11 | 32 | 5 | 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 3.4 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 307 km² of land.
- About 1.9 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 4.1 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Minnetonka
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 18beaches and swimming spots
Deephaven Main Beach, Point Charming Beach, Crescent Beach, Wekota Beach, Nocomo Beach and 13 more
- 2campsites
Big Island, Shaver Campground
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 46marinas and slipways
Grays Bay Public Water Access Site, Carson's Bay Landing, North Arm Boat Landing, Maxwell Bay Public Water Access Site, St. Louis Bay Public Boat Launch and 41 more
- —ferry piers
- 3viewpoints
- 3hotels, B&Bs and chalets
The Hotel Landing, The Shoreline Hotel
- —fishing spots
- 41restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Minnetonka51,669 people
- Orono8,006 people
- Shorewood7,614 people
- Wayzata4,610 people
- Deephaven3,843 people
- Excelsior2,279 people
- Long Lake1,800 people
- Spring Park1,705 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP), 26 km in a straight line.
Car hire at MSP airport (Minneapolis)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 | -5.7 | -3.4 | 5.1 | 13.4 | 20.2 | 25.7 | 28.7 | 27.1 | 22.8 | 13.5 | 5.1 | -3.0 |
| 2020 | +1.0 | +0.5 | +1.4 | −2.2 | −1.9 | +0.6 | −0.6 | −0.4 | −2.3 | −3.7 | +1.4 | +2.1 |
| 2021 | +2.4 | −4.5 | +3.7 | −0.1 | +0.1 | +4.4 | +1.9 | +2.2 | +1.8 | +3.6 | +0.3 | +1.3 |
| 2022 | −2.1 | −2.2 | −1.5 | −3.8 | +0.4 | +1.5 | +1.2 | +1.2 | +1.7 | +2.3 | −0.1 | −2.5 |
| 2023 | +0.9 | +0.6 | −3.5 | −2.3 | +2.6 | +2.0 | +0.4 | +2.2 | +3.2 | +1.3 | +1.9 | +5.7 |
| 2024 | +2.0 | +7.3 | +1.3 | +0.6 | +1.7 | −0.9 | −2.0 | −1.7 | +2.4 | +4.6 | +0.8 | +1.3 |
| 2025 | −0.3 | −0.9 | +3.8 | ±0.0 | +0.8 | −0.7 | −0.7 | −1.3 | +1.0 | +3.1 | +1.9 | −1.0 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
United States1.6 km² · 18 km away26°maxMille Lacs LakeUnited States516 km² · 145 km away22°maxBig Stone LakeUnited States44.6 km² · 234 km away25°maxLeech LakeUnited States413 km² · 255 km away22°maxLake ItascaUnited States4.0 km² · 283 km away23°maxRed LakeUnited States1,142 km² · 356 km away22°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 (Q1060288) · 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.
