Reservoir · United States
Lake Norman
Norman
Reservoir in North Carolina, United States
- Area
- 112km²
- Average depth
- 4.6m
- Elevation
- 231m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 412km
- Volume
- 0.511km³
Lake Norman is a reservoir in United States. It covers 112 km². On average it is 4.6 m deep. Its surface lies 231 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Norman?
The water is warmest in August, around 30 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 10 °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 32 °C on average in July and 9 °C in January. The driest month is February (78 mm of rain), the wettest July (116 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (79 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 | 10 | 11 | 9 | -2 | 79 | 10 | 5.4 | 13 |
| February | 10 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 78 | 10 | 5.5 | 14 |
| March | 13 | 15 | 16 | 4 | 93 | 11 | 6.5 | 14 |
| April | 18 | 20 | 21 | 9 | 95 | 10 | 7.8 | 14 |
| May | 23 | 25 | 26 | 14 | 106 | 13 | 8.2 | 12 |
| June | 27 | 29 | 30 | 19 | 109 | 16 | 8.9 | 10 |
| July | 29 | 30 | 32 | 21 | 116 | 19 | 8.3 | 9 |
| August | 30 | 30 | 32 | 20 | 115 | 16 | 7.6 | 9 |
| September | 27 | 29 | 28 | 17 | 103 | 11 | 7.0 | 10 |
| October | 23 | 25 | 22 | 10 | 87 | 8 | 6.4 | 11 |
| November | 17 | 20 | 16 | 4 | 89 | 9 | 6.0 | 12 |
| December | 12 | 14 | 11 | 0 | 104 | 10 | 4.8 | 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 2 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 4,694 km² of land.
- About 83 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 11.0 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Norman
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 38beaches and swimming spots
SHOAL, Ramsay Creek Park Beach and 36 more
- 9campsites
Group Camp B, Group Camp E, Group Camp A, Group Camp C, Group Camp D and 4 more
- 3boat hire and water-sport clubs
Caparal Boats, Lake Effects Boat Rentals
- 49marinas and slipways
Championship Yacht Charters, Holiday Marina, Inland Sea Marina, Lake Norman Co - North Harbor Marina, Lake Norman Sailing Club and 44 more
- —ferry piers
- 1viewpoints
- 28hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Days Inn Cornelius Lake Norman, Lake Norman Motel, Ardmore at Aclove, Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham Cornelius/Lake Norman, Clarion Inn & Suites and 23 more
- —fishing spots
- 76restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Cornelius28,092 people
- Davidson12,207 people
- Lake Norman of Catawba5,075 people
- Westport4,026 people
- Sherrills Ford1,007 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Concord-Padgett Regional Airport (USA), 23 km in a straight line.
Car hire at CLT airport (Charlotte)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Photos
Seen by visitors
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 | 8.8 | 11.1 | 15.8 | 21.4 | 25.9 | 30.4 | 32.3 | 31.6 | 28.2 | 22.2 | 15.7 | 10.9 |
| 2020 | +2.4 | +1.2 | +2.1 | −0.8 | −2.8 | −2.9 | −0.8 | −1.6 | −2.5 | +0.5 | +2.2 | −0.9 |
| 2021 | −0.1 | −1.8 | +1.2 | −0.4 | −1.1 | −0.6 | −0.1 | +0.2 | +0.7 | +2.6 | ±0.0 | +5.4 |
| 2022 | −0.6 | +2.4 | +2.2 | ±0.0 | +1.4 | +1.9 | +0.6 | −0.6 | −0.2 | −1.0 | +1.3 | −1.4 |
| 2023 | +3.8 | +4.1 | +0.7 | +0.2 | −2.5 | −2.5 | +0.2 | +0.8 | +0.7 | +1.9 | +1.5 | +2.0 |
| 2024 | +1.0 | +2.3 | +2.1 | +0.6 | +0.2 | +1.1 | +0.4 | −1.7 | −1.1 | ±0.0 | +2.1 | ±0.0 |
| 2025 | −2.3 | +1.7 | +2.9 | +2.2 | −0.3 | +0.3 | +1.6 | −3.3 | +0.5 | +0.1 | +1.8 | −0.3 |
+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 (Q1801020) · 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.
