Lake · United States
Lake Pontchartrain
Estuary located in southeastern Louisiana, United States
- Area
- 1,645km²
- Max depth
- 3m
- Average depth
- 3.8m
- Elevation
- 0m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 205km
- Volume
- 6.3km³
Lake Pontchartrain is a lake in United States. It covers 1,645 km². On average it is 3.8 m deep, and 3 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 0 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Pontchartrain?
The water is warmest in July, around 30 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 11 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from April to October: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 31 °C on average in August and 16 °C in January. The driest month is November (76 mm of rain), the wettest August (190 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (93 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 | 11 | 11 | 16 | 8 | 98 | 11 | 5.3 | 17 |
| February | 12 | 14 | 18 | 10 | 107 | 10 | 5.3 | 17 |
| March | 16 | 19 | 21 | 14 | 104 | 10 | 6.7 | 17 |
| April | 21 | 23 | 24 | 18 | 128 | 9 | 7.9 | 17 |
| May | 25 | 27 | 28 | 22 | 119 | 11 | 8.7 | 15 |
| June | 28 | 30 | 30 | 26 | 176 | 19 | 8.3 | 13 |
| July | 30 | 30 | 31 | 26 | 173 | 24 | 7.5 | 12 |
| August | 30 | 30 | 31 | 26 | 190 | 24 | 7.5 | 12 |
| September | 27 | 29 | 29 | 24 | 129 | 15 | 7.6 | 14 |
| October | 23 | 25 | 26 | 19 | 104 | 9 | 7.5 | 15 |
| November | 17 | 20 | 20 | 14 | 76 | 8 | 6.6 | 16 |
| December | 12 | 14 | 17 | 10 | 128 | 11 | 4.8 | 17 |
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 8 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 13,746 km² of land.
- About 289 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Pontchartrain
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 8beaches and swimming spots
Olimpic Beach and 7 more
- 2campsites
Fontainebleau Campground
- 1boat hire and water-sport clubs
New Orleans Yacht Club
- 9marinas and slipways
South Shore Harbor Marina, U.S. Coast Guard - Station New Orleans, Pontchartrain Yacht Club, Lakeshore Marina and 5 more
- —ferry piers
- 1viewpoints
Collapsed Observarion Deck
- 14hotels, B&Bs and chalets
New Orleans Marriott Metairie at Lakeway, Rose Manor Inn, Holiday Inn Express New Orleans East, Comfort Suites New Orleans East, Orleans Courtyard Inn and 9 more
- —fishing spots
- 92restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Mandeville12,345 people
- Eden Isle7,041 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY), 25 km in a straight line.
Car hire at MSY airport (New Orleans)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 | 15.5 | 17.5 | 20.8 | 24.2 | 27.5 | 30.2 | 30.6 | 30.7 | 29.2 | 25.5 | 20.5 | 16.9 |
| 2020 | +2.0 | +0.6 | +2.9 | +0.6 | −0.4 | −0.6 | −0.5 | +0.2 | −0.7 | +0.2 | +1.3 | −0.9 |
| 2021 | ±0.0 | −2.0 | +0.4 | −1.1 | −1.2 | −1.0 | −0.5 | +0.3 | −0.9 | +0.6 | −1.0 | +3.7 |
| 2022 | −0.8 | −0.4 | +0.4 | +0.2 | +1.3 | +1.5 | +0.8 | −0.5 | +0.3 | −0.3 | −0.2 | +0.4 |
| 2023 | +2.8 | +2.2 | +1.8 | −0.1 | +0.8 | +2.4 | +3.1 | +5.1 | +2.4 | +1.0 | +0.1 | −0.4 |
| 2024 | −0.6 | +0.9 | +0.8 | +0.3 | +1.4 | +0.9 | +1.0 | +2.4 | +0.4 | +1.0 | +3.1 | +0.8 |
| 2025 | −2.0 | +1.7 | +1.2 | +1.3 | +0.4 | +0.5 | +1.2 | +0.8 | +2.3 | +1.8 | +2.0 | +0.9 |
+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 (Q1331750) · 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.
