Lake · Canada
Lake St. John
Lake in Quebec, Canada
- Area
- 1,113km²
- Max depth
- 63m
- Average depth
- 11m
- Elevation
- 96m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 700km
- Volume
- 12.2km³
Lake St. John is a lake in Canada. It covers 1,113 km². On average it is 11 m deep, and 63 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 96 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake St. John?
The water is warmest in August, around 21 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more in August: comfortable for most swimmers.
The lake usually freezes over for about 174 days a year, from around 14 November to 6 May.
On the shore, afternoons reach 23 °C on average in July and -11 °C in January. The driest month is February (51 mm of rain), the wettest July (109 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (49 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 | — | -11 | -22 | 52 | 12 | 3.3 | 14 |
| February | Ice | — | -9 | -20 | 51 | 10 | 4.8 | 15 |
| March | Ice | — | -3 | -13 | 59 | 11 | 6.1 | 15 |
| April | Ice | — | 6 | -3 | 74 | 12 | 6.3 | 16 |
| May | 3 | 8 | 16 | 5 | 80 | 13 | 7.1 | 14 |
| June | 13 | 17 | 21 | 12 | 90 | 14 | 7.4 | 13 |
| July | 19 | 21 | 23 | 15 | 109 | 17 | 6.9 | 13 |
| August | 21 | 21 | 22 | 14 | 103 | 15 | 6.1 | 13 |
| September | 17 | 19 | 18 | 9 | 98 | 13 | 5.1 | 13 |
| October | 9 | 13 | 10 | 2 | 95 | 14 | 2.8 | 14 |
| November | Ice | — | 1 | -5 | 71 | 13 | 1.6 | 14 |
| December | Ice | — | -7 | -16 | 73 | 13 | 1.9 | 13 |
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 3 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 72,559 km² of land.
- About 1,561 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 5.9 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake St. John
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 41beaches and swimming spots
Plage du parc de la Pointe-Taillon, Plage Publique de Dolbeau-Mistassini, Plage Rigolet, Plage Belley / Amicaux, Plage Taillon and 36 more
- 41campsites
Pointe-Chevrette, Camping Le Prospecteur, Camping Les Migrateurs, Camping Les Castors, Assi-Nipi camping-écohébergement and 36 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 14marinas and slipways
Rivière Mistouk, Marina St-Gédéon, Rang des Iles, Baie Moise, Marina Saint-coeur-de-Marie and 9 more
- 6ferry piers
Dam-en-Terre and 5 more
- 12viewpoints
camp musical de Métabetchouan-Lac-à-la-Croix, Cascade Ouiatchouan and 10 more
- 34hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Gîte la Providence, Auberge Maison Robertson, La Brise du Lac, La Maison Banville, Hôtel Château Roberval and 29 more
- 6fishing spots
Quai municipal ( doré, brochet), Dam-en-Terre (doré, perchaude, brochet), 5002 Ave du Pont Nord (doré, brochet), Marina St-Gédéon (doré, perchaude, brochet), Marina St-Gédéon (doré, perchaude,brochet) and 1 more
- 28restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Sainte-Monique14,150 people
- Dolbeau-Mistassini12,916 people
- Saint-Félicien10,278 people
- Roberval10,227 people
- Pointe-du-Lac7,104 people
- Saint-Gédéon1,859 people
- Chambord1,773 people
- Desbiens1,034 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Roberval Airport (YRJ), 21 km in a straight line.
Car hire at YRJ airport (Roberval)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 | -11.0 | -8.7 | -3.0 | 5.7 | 15.7 | 20.9 | 23.2 | 22.0 | 17.8 | 9.5 | 1.3 | -7.3 |
| 2020 | +1.7 | +2.2 | +0.9 | −2.0 | −1.1 | +1.4 | +1.7 | −0.6 | −1.8 | −2.1 | +1.4 | +2.4 |
| 2021 | +2.4 | +1.1 | +3.2 | +4.5 | +0.2 | +1.1 | −0.7 | +3.0 | +0.1 | +3.8 | +0.8 | +1.0 |
| 2022 | −3.0 | +0.1 | −0.4 | +0.2 | +1.8 | −0.4 | −0.1 | +0.9 | +0.7 | +3.1 | +1.5 | +2.3 |
| 2023 | +2.0 | +0.1 | +2.0 | +2.5 | +0.3 | +0.6 | +1.1 | −0.8 | +2.9 | +3.8 | −1.6 | +2.9 |
| 2024 | +2.8 | +2.6 | +5.0 | +3.6 | +2.6 | +2.6 | +1.6 | +1.2 | +2.7 | +2.6 | +1.7 | +0.9 |
| 2025 | −0.4 | −1.2 | +1.8 | +1.4 | +0.5 | +0.8 | +0.4 | +0.4 | +0.6 | +2.8 | −1.6 | −2.0 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
Canada2,182 km² · 290 km away12°maxMoosehead Lake
United States300 km² · 351 km away20°maxLake of Two MountainsCanada153 km² · 376 km away24°maxLac Saint-LouisCanada151 km² · 378 km away22°maxManicouagan ReservoirCanada1,796 km² · 393 km awayLake MemphremagogCanada90.7 km² · 391 km away22°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 (Q979922) · 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.
