Lake · Canada · United States
Lake Saint Clair
Lake bordering Ontario, Canada and Michigan, US
- Area
- 1,161km²
- Max depth
- 3m
- Average depth
- 2.9m
- Elevation
- 173m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 445km
- Volume
- 3.4km³
Lake Saint Clair is a lake in Canada. It covers 1,161 km². On average it is 2.9 m deep, and 3 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 173 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Saint Clair?
The water is warmest in August, around 23 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 0 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from July to August: comfortable for most swimmers.
The lake usually freezes over for about 60 days a year, from around 9 January to 9 March.
On the shore, afternoons reach 27 °C on average in July and -1 °C in January. The driest month is February (47 mm of rain), the wettest May (82 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (124 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 | — | -1 | -7 | 49 | 12 | 2.1 | 22 |
| February | Ice | — | 0 | -7 | 47 | 10 | 3.5 | 21 |
| March | 1 | 2 | 6 | -3 | 52 | 11 | 4.9 | 20 |
| April | 5 | 8 | 13 | 2 | 66 | 14 | 6.4 | 21 |
| May | 12 | 15 | 19 | 9 | 82 | 16 | 7.3 | 17 |
| June | 18 | 21 | 24 | 15 | 77 | 15 | 8.8 | 15 |
| July | 22 | 23 | 27 | 18 | 80 | 17 | 9.0 | 14 |
| August | 23 | 23 | 26 | 18 | 73 | 15 | 7.9 | 14 |
| September | 19 | 21 | 23 | 14 | 69 | 12 | 6.9 | 15 |
| October | 14 | 17 | 16 | 7 | 62 | 13 | 4.7 | 19 |
| November | 8 | 11 | 8 | 1 | 58 | 11 | 3.2 | 21 |
| December | 3 | 5 | 2 | -3 | 54 | 12 | 2.1 | 21 |
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 4 days before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 592,711 km² of land.
- About 9,261 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 3.7 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Saint Clair
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 13beaches and swimming spots
Sandpoint Beach, Hipster Beach, Little Beach, Accretion Beach, Crescent Sail Club Beach (Private) and 8 more
- 9campsites
Bouvier Bridge Marina & RV Resort, Rochester Place Campgrounds, Charron's RV Park, Bass Haven, Mitchell's Bay Marine Park Campground and 4 more
- 1boat hire and water-sport clubs
Bass Haven
- 107marinas and slipways
Fair Haven Boat Launch, Sandbar, Deerbrook Marina, Mitchell's Bay Marine Park, Boat Launch and 102 more
- —ferry piers
- 1viewpoints
- 5hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Parkside Cabins, Bayview Towers, Le Petit Dragon Motel, Ruth Motel
- —fishing spots
- 40restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Saint Clair Shores59,715 people
- Tecumseh23,229 people
- Grosse Pointe Woods15,762 people
- New Baltimore12,354 people
- Grosse Pointe Park11,220 people
- Belle River9,650 people
- Grosse Pointe Farms9,232 people
- Grosse Pointe5,232 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Windsor International Airport (YQG), 24 km in a straight line.
Car hire at YQG airport (Windsor)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 | -0.9 | 0.1 | 5.7 | 12.8 | 19.2 | 24.5 | 27.2 | 26.5 | 23.0 | 15.6 | 8.5 | 2.1 |
| 2020 | +2.7 | +1.1 | +2.6 | −1.6 | −1.6 | +1.3 | +2.1 | +0.7 | −0.3 | −0.5 | +2.4 | +0.8 |
| 2021 | +1.3 | −1.9 | +3.9 | +1.3 | +0.8 | +2.5 | −0.2 | +2.6 | +0.9 | +3.2 | −0.7 | +3.1 |
| 2022 | −1.4 | +0.3 | +1.2 | −1.3 | +1.6 | +1.4 | +1.4 | +1.5 | +0.8 | +0.6 | +1.1 | +0.7 |
| 2023 | +3.0 | +3.5 | +0.3 | +1.6 | +0.9 | +0.2 | +0.1 | −1.0 | +0.3 | +0.6 | +0.2 | +3.9 |
| 2024 | +0.7 | +4.6 | +3.0 | +2.4 | +2.9 | +1.4 | −0.1 | +0.2 | +1.8 | +2.5 | +2.4 | +0.6 |
| 2025 | −1.3 | −0.9 | +3.9 | +1.6 | −0.8 | +1.2 | +2.0 | +0.7 | +2.2 | +2.5 | −0.4 | −1.5 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
United States25,768 km² · 130 km away22°maxLake HuronUnited States59,399 km² · 261 km away19°maxLake MichiganUnited States57,727 km² · 349 km away22°maxChautauqua LakeUnited States53.3 km² · 280 km away24°maxLake SimcoeCanada767 km² · 349 km away21°maxLake ManitouCanada106 km² · 375 km away21°maxAbout 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 (Q736707) · 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.
