Lake · United States
Lake Washington
Lake in Washington state, U.S.
- Area
- 83.8km²
- Max depth
- 65m
- Average depth
- 34m
- Elevation
- 1m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 110km
- Volume
- 2.9km³
Lake Washington is a lake in United States. It covers 83.8 km². On average it is 34 m deep, and 65 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 1 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Washington?
The water is warmest in August, around 22 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 6 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from July to August: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 23 °C on average in August and 6 °C in December. The driest month is July (19 mm of rain), the wettest November (188 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (122 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 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 174 | 20 | 1.6 | 9 |
| February | 7 | 7 | 8 | 1 | 108 | 16 | 3.4 | 8 |
| March | 8 | 9 | 10 | 3 | 138 | 19 | 3.9 | 9 |
| April | 11 | 12 | 13 | 5 | 95 | 17 | 5.5 | 8 |
| May | 14 | 17 | 18 | 8 | 70 | 13 | 7.0 | 6 |
| June | 19 | 21 | 20 | 11 | 51 | 12 | 7.8 | 6 |
| July | 22 | 23 | 23 | 13 | 19 | 5 | 9.8 | 5 |
| August | 22 | 23 | 23 | 13 | 29 | 5 | 8.8 | 6 |
| September | 19 | 21 | 20 | 11 | 58 | 9 | 6.7 | 6 |
| October | 15 | 17 | 15 | 7 | 125 | 16 | 4.0 | 8 |
| November | 11 | 12 | 10 | 4 | 188 | 20 | 2.0 | 9 |
| December | 8 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 175 | 20 | 1.4 | 9 |
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 20 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 1,488 km² of land.
- About 54 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 3.4 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Washington
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 73beaches and swimming spots
Madison Park Beach, Matthews Beach, North Beach, Swim Area, Madison Park Beach Swim Area and 68 more
- —campsites
- 9boat hire and water-sport clubs
Agua Verde Paddle Club, Waterfront Activities Center, Whats Sup, Sail Sand Point, Kenmore Community Rowing Club and 4 more
- 70marinas and slipways
SE 40th Boat Launch, Ferdinand Street Boat Launch, Newport Yacht Basin, Atlantic City Boat Ramp, Adams Street Boat Ramp and 65 more
- —ferry piers
- 49viewpoints
Viewing Platform, East Portal View, Overlook, Terrace Overlook, Lookout and 44 more
- 22hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Hyatt Regency Bellevue on Seattle's Eastside, Hilton Bellevue, College Inn, InterContinental Seattle Bellevue, by IHG, The Lodge at Saint Edward State Park and 17 more
- 2fishing spots
- 537restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Bellevue139,820 people
- Renton100,242 people
- Kirkland87,281 people
- Mercer Island25,042 people
- Inglewood-Finn Hill22,707 people
- Kenmore22,030 people
- Columbia City19,000 people
- Bryn Mawr-Skyway15,645 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI), 10 km in a straight line.
Car hire at SEA airport (Seattle)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 | 7.1 | 8.0 | 10.4 | 13.3 | 17.5 | 19.8 | 23.2 | 23.4 | 20.2 | 14.7 | 9.7 | 6.4 |
| 2020 | +0.4 | −0.1 | −1.3 | +1.0 | +0.6 | −0.6 | −1.0 | −0.2 | +1.6 | +0.3 | −0.4 | +1.6 |
| 2021 | +0.7 | −2.2 | −0.1 | +1.7 | −0.4 | +3.5 | +1.6 | +0.8 | +0.2 | −0.8 | +1.1 | −2.2 |
| 2022 | +0.4 | −0.2 | +0.4 | −2.1 | −2.6 | −0.1 | +1.4 | +1.7 | +1.6 | +3.6 | −1.7 | −1.3 |
| 2023 | +0.3 | −1.3 | −1.1 | −1.5 | +2.7 | +0.9 | +1.0 | +1.6 | +0.1 | +1.1 | +0.5 | +3.1 |
| 2024 | −0.7 | +0.6 | +0.4 | −0.7 | −1.2 | −0.9 | +1.5 | −0.8 | −1.8 | −2.8 | −2.0 | +0.8 |
| 2025 | −1.8 | −2.3 | −1.1 | +0.4 | −1.4 | −1.1 | −2.7 | −2.5 | −2.3 | −2.9 | −1.0 | +1.2 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
United States1.8 km² · 6 km away23°maxLake SammamishUnited States18.7 km² · 12 km away23°maxLake ChelanUnited States128 km² · 143 km away18°maxHarrison Lake
Canada222 km² · 214 km away20°maxFranklin D. Roosevelt LakeUnited States269 km² · 315 km away21°maxOkanagan LakeCanada349 km² · 350 km away23°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 (Q1323525) · 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.
