Lake · Canada
Lake Mistassini
Large glacial lake in Nord-du-Québec, Quebec, Canada
- Area
- 2,182km²
- Max depth
- 180m
- Average depth
- 75m
- Elevation
- 371m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 3,235km
- Volume
- 164km³
Lake Mistassini is a lake in Canada. It covers 2,182 km². On average it is 75 m deep, and 180 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 371 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Mistassini?
The water is warmest in September, around 12 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. Even at its warmest, the surface stays below 17 °C on average: this is cold water.
The lake usually freezes over for about 187 days a year, from around 15 November to 20 May.
On the shore, afternoons reach 20 °C on average in July and -16 °C in January. The driest month is February (38 mm of rain), the wettest July (125 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (90 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 | — | -16 | -25 | 42 | 12 | 3.7 | 12 |
| February | Ice | — | -14 | -24 | 38 | 10 | 6.4 | 12 |
| March | Ice | — | -7 | -17 | 42 | 10 | 8.1 | 13 |
| April | Ice | — | 1 | -7 | 64 | 12 | 7.9 | 14 |
| May | Ice | — | 12 | 3 | 77 | 14 | 7.9 | 13 |
| June | 5 | 7 | 18 | 9 | 103 | 16 | 7.5 | 13 |
| July | 8 | 10 | 20 | 12 | 125 | 18 | 6.2 | 12 |
| August | 11 | 12 | 19 | 11 | 118 | 19 | 5.0 | 12 |
| September | 12 | 13 | 14 | 6 | 107 | 17 | 4.2 | 13 |
| October | 9 | 12 | 6 | 0 | 94 | 17 | 2.3 | 13 |
| November | Ice | — | -3 | -9 | 71 | 16 | 0.9 | 12 |
| December | Ice | — | -12 | -20 | 58 | 13 | 1.7 | 11 |
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 13 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 19,676 km² of land.
- About 393 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 19.5 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Mistassini
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 1beaches and swimming spots
Mistissini Beach
- 2campsites
Sunrise Youth Camp, Camping Baie Pénicouane
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 2marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 2viewpoints
Viewpoint of Mistassini Lake
- 2hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Sam’s Breakfast and Steakhouse, Bella's Bed & Breakfast
- 1fishing spots
Fishing on Lake Mistassini
- 3restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Mistissini2,869 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Chapais Airport (YMT), 138 km in a straight line.
Car hire at YMT airport (Chibougamau)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 | -15.7 | -13.5 | -6.9 | 0.9 | 12.0 | 18.0 | 20.4 | 18.7 | 13.9 | 5.6 | -2.7 | -11.7 |
| 2020 | +2.2 | +2.3 | +1.2 | −0.8 | −2.1 | +1.3 | +2.4 | +0.2 | −1.3 | −3.3 | +1.5 | +1.5 |
| 2021 | +4.0 | +2.2 | +2.8 | +7.1 | +0.3 | +0.8 | −0.6 | +3.1 | +0.7 | +5.3 | +1.4 | ±0.0 |
| 2022 | −4.1 | −0.7 | ±0.0 | +1.4 | +1.2 | +1.1 | −1.0 | +1.6 | +1.6 | +3.6 | +1.4 | +3.0 |
| 2023 | +2.1 | −0.1 | +1.5 | +2.4 | +0.9 | +3.1 | +1.0 | −0.1 | +3.8 | +4.1 | −1.2 | +3.8 |
| 2024 | +3.7 | +4.1 | +3.6 | +4.1 | +2.9 | +3.4 | +1.9 | +2.6 | +4.3 | +2.6 | +2.6 | +3.1 |
| 2025 | +0.4 | −0.6 | +0.3 | +1.9 | +2.3 | +0.4 | −0.7 | +1.0 | +1.5 | +3.5 | ±0.0 | −1.5 |
+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 (Q1458051) · 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.
