Glacial lake · New Zealand
Lake Ōhau
Lake in the South Island of New Zealand
- Area
- 57.6km²
- Average depth
- 37m
- Elevation
- 519m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 44km
- Volume
- 2.1km³
Lake Ōhau is a glacial lake in New Zealand. It covers 57.6 km². On average it is 37 m deep. Its surface lies 519 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Ōhau?
The water is warmest in February, around 14 °C at the surface, and coldest in August, around 7 °C. Even at its warmest, the surface stays below 17 °C on average: this is cold water.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 16 °C on average in February and 2 °C in July. The driest month is February (119 mm of rain), the wettest December (167 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (76 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 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 6 | 156 | 16 | 7.8 | 16 |
| February | 14 | 15 | 16 | 6 | 119 | 14 | 7.8 | 14 |
| March | 14 | 14 | 14 | 5 | 128 | 16 | 6.8 | 13 |
| April | 12 | 13 | 10 | 2 | 126 | 16 | 5.5 | 12 |
| May | 10 | 11 | 6 | 0 | 149 | 18 | 3.8 | 13 |
| June | 9 | 9 | 3 | -2 | 144 | 17 | 3.2 | 11 |
| July | 8 | 8 | 2 | -3 | 128 | 17 | 3.4 | 11 |
| August | 7 | 7 | 4 | -2 | 129 | 18 | 4.0 | 12 |
| September | 8 | 8 | 7 | -1 | 148 | 18 | 4.6 | 15 |
| October | 9 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 151 | 20 | 5.4 | 16 |
| November | 11 | 12 | 12 | 3 | 148 | 17 | 6.6 | 16 |
| December | 13 | 14 | 14 | 5 | 167 | 18 | 7.3 | 15 |
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 1,150 km² of land.
- About 75 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Ōhau
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 4campsites
Lake Middleton Campsite, Round Bush Campsite
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 4marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 3viewpoints
- 2hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Lake Ohau Quarters, Lake Ōhau Lodge
- —fishing spots
- —restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Wanaka Airport (WKA), 74 km in a straight line.
Car hire at ZQN airport (Queenstown)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 | 15.6 | 15.8 | 13.6 | 9.9 | 6.4 | 3.3 | 2.5 | 4.1 | 6.7 | 8.9 | 11.7 | 14.2 |
| 2020 | +1.6 | +1.8 | −0.2 | −0.5 | +1.0 | +0.8 | +0.4 | +1.9 | −0.4 | +1.3 | +1.2 | −0.1 |
| 2021 | −0.6 | +1.1 | +0.4 | +0.4 | +1.0 | +1.9 | +0.9 | +0.3 | −0.5 | +1.7 | +1.6 | +0.2 |
| 2022 | +3.3 | +0.1 | +1.9 | +2.5 | +2.1 | +0.2 | −0.7 | +1.2 | +0.4 | +0.7 | +1.0 | +0.7 |
| 2023 | +2.9 | +0.6 | −0.8 | +1.2 | +2.0 | +1.5 | +0.9 | −0.5 | +0.9 | +1.2 | +1.3 | +1.8 |
| 2024 | +1.2 | −0.5 | −1.2 | +0.5 | −1.0 | +1.4 | +0.7 | +0.6 | −0.5 | −0.1 | +1.1 | +1.2 |
| 2025 | +1.6 | +2.6 | +1.5 | +1.1 | +1.2 | −0.7 | +1.3 | +0.4 | −1.3 | −1.2 | +1.1 | −1.1 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
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 (Q1349516) · 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.
