Reservoir · United States
Lake Sakakawea
Reservoir on the Missouri River in North Dakota, United States
- Area
- 1,127km²
- Max depth
- 55m
- Average depth
- 27m
- Elevation
- 557m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 1,200km
- Volume
- 30.2km³
Lake Sakakawea is a reservoir in United States. It covers 1,127 km². On average it is 27 m deep, and 55 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 557 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Sakakawea?
The water is warmest in August, around 22 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, 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 126 days a year, from around 30 November to 4 April.
On the shore, afternoons reach 29 °C on average in July and -5 °C in January. The driest month is February (12 mm of rain), the wettest June (92 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (150 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 | — | -5 | -15 | 14 | 4 | 5.9 | 20 |
| February | Ice | — | -4 | -14 | 12 | 3 | 7.8 | 18 |
| March | Ice | — | 4 | -7 | 20 | 5 | 8.0 | 20 |
| April | 3 | 6 | 12 | -1 | 32 | 7 | 7.8 | 20 |
| May | 10 | 14 | 19 | 6 | 70 | 11 | 8.8 | 20 |
| June | 17 | 19 | 24 | 12 | 92 | 14 | 9.6 | 18 |
| July | 21 | 22 | 29 | 16 | 60 | 11 | 11.1 | 16 |
| August | 22 | 23 | 27 | 14 | 48 | 9 | 9.3 | 17 |
| September | 19 | 21 | 21 | 8 | 48 | 7 | 7.4 | 18 |
| October | 12 | 16 | 11 | 0 | 31 | 6 | 5.3 | 20 |
| November | 4 | 8 | 3 | -6 | 15 | 4 | 4.2 | 20 |
| December | Ice | — | -4 | -12 | 17 | 4 | 3.9 | 19 |
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 14 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 462,779 km² of land.
- About 804 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 10.1 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Sakakawea
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 29campsites
McKenzie Bay Rec Area, Douglas Creek - COE, Lake Sakakawea SP - Fishing Point, Earth Lodge Village, Totten Trail and 24 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 44marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- —viewpoints
- 1hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Sakakawea Morel
- —fishing spots
- 2restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- New Town2,521 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Minot International Airport (MOT), 92 km in a straight line.
Car hire at MOT airport (Minot)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 | -5.4 | -3.9 | 4.4 | 12.1 | 18.9 | 24.5 | 29.0 | 27.4 | 21.2 | 11.2 | 3.1 | -4.1 |
| 2020 | ±0.0 | +3.6 | +1.0 | −2.4 | ±0.0 | +2.1 | −0.3 | +1.7 | −0.1 | −3.1 | +1.8 | +4.3 |
| 2021 | +4.4 | −3.9 | +4.9 | +0.5 | +0.2 | +4.1 | +3.6 | +1.0 | +3.6 | +3.1 | +2.2 | −0.7 |
| 2022 | +0.5 | +0.1 | +0.2 | −6.3 | −1.0 | ±0.0 | +0.5 | +2.3 | +2.3 | +1.7 | −3.7 | −4.7 |
| 2023 | +0.5 | +3.2 | −4.6 | −1.5 | +4.2 | +3.2 | −1.1 | +0.3 | +2.5 | +0.3 | +1.2 | +5.8 |
| 2024 | −0.9 | +6.6 | −2.0 | +1.6 | +0.3 | ±0.0 | +1.8 | +0.5 | +5.4 | +5.6 | −0.3 | +1.2 |
| 2025 | −1.1 | −3.8 | +2.6 | +0.9 | +2.0 | +0.7 | −0.9 | +0.6 | +3.1 | +3.7 | +1.5 | +1.3 |
+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 (Q1801077) · 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.
