Reservoir · United States
Lake Oahe
Fourth-largest US reservoir, in South and North Dakota
- Area
- 1,093km²
- Max depth
- 62m
- Average depth
- 27m
- Elevation
- 486m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 1,675km
- Volume
- 29.1km³
Lake Oahe is a reservoir in United States. It covers 1,093 km². On average it is 27 m deep, and 62 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 486 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Oahe?
The water is warmest in August, around 23 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from July to September: comfortable for most swimmers.
The lake usually freezes over for about 99 days a year, from around 21 December to 29 March.
On the shore, afternoons reach 33 °C on average in July and 0 °C in January. The driest month is January (9 mm of rain), the wettest June (82 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (170 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 | — | 0 | -10 | 9 | 3 | 5.2 | 18 |
| February | Ice | — | 1 | -10 | 16 | 4 | 6.4 | 18 |
| March | Ice | — | 9 | -4 | 24 | 5 | 6.8 | 19 |
| April | 4 | 7 | 15 | 2 | 51 | 9 | 7.5 | 20 |
| May | 11 | 15 | 22 | 8 | 82 | 12 | 8.7 | 19 |
| June | 19 | 21 | 29 | 15 | 82 | 14 | 10.3 | 17 |
| July | 23 | 24 | 33 | 19 | 58 | 12 | 11.0 | 16 |
| August | 23 | 24 | 31 | 17 | 55 | 10 | 9.3 | 16 |
| September | 20 | 22 | 25 | 12 | 43 | 6 | 8.1 | 18 |
| October | 15 | 18 | 15 | 3 | 40 | 6 | 6.1 | 19 |
| November | 8 | 11 | 7 | -3 | 13 | 4 | 5.2 | 18 |
| December | 1 | 4 | 0 | -9 | 14 | 3 | 4.3 | 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 11 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 612,788 km² of land.
- About 965 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 14.3 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Oahe
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 11campsites
Sacred Stone Camp, Hazelton Recreation Area, Country Cabins RV Park, Bethel Bible Camp, Grand River Casino Campground and 6 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 29marinas and slipways
Cattail Bay Boat Ramp, North Low Water Boat Ramp, Fort Rice Boat Ramp, SE Beaver Creek Boat Ramp, Main Boat Ramp and 24 more
- —ferry piers
- —viewpoints
- 6hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Wrangler Inn, Mo-Rest Motel, Mobridge Kountry Inn, Lakeview Motel & Campground, The Lodge and 1 more
- 1fishing spots
Eckroth Corner
- 7restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Mobridge3,466 people
- Fort Yates191 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Pierre Regional Airport (PIR), 46 km in a straight line.
Car hire at RAP airport (Rapid City)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 | -0.4 | 0.9 | 8.6 | 15.4 | 21.9 | 28.6 | 33.3 | 30.9 | 25.4 | 15.1 | 7.2 | 0.1 |
| 2020 | −0.1 | +2.3 | +1.5 | −1.3 | −1.3 | +2.3 | −0.8 | +1.1 | −1.3 | −3.3 | +2.9 | +3.1 |
| 2021 | +2.7 | −4.3 | +2.9 | −0.2 | +0.1 | +4.9 | +0.7 | +1.5 | +1.6 | +2.3 | +2.4 | +1.1 |
| 2022 | +1.0 | +0.8 | ±0.0 | −2.6 | −0.3 | +0.3 | −0.2 | +1.6 | +2.9 | +2.0 | −3.1 | −4.2 |
| 2023 | +0.5 | +3.1 | −4.8 | −1.6 | +3.7 | +0.8 | −1.2 | +0.2 | +1.7 | +0.1 | +1.8 | +3.5 |
| 2024 | −2.4 | +5.3 | −0.3 | +0.5 | +0.3 | +0.2 | −1.0 | −0.2 | +5.0 | +5.2 | −0.2 | +2.0 |
| 2025 | −1.8 | −2.8 | +3.4 | +1.1 | +0.6 | +0.3 | −0.6 | +0.1 | +0.6 | +3.3 | +1.3 | +2.3 |
+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 (Q474408) · 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.
