Reservoir · United States
Leech Lake
Lake in Cass County, Minnesota, United States of America
- Area
- 413km²
- Max depth
- 46m
- Average depth
- 2.0m
- Elevation
- 392m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 293km
- Volume
- 0.839km³
Leech Lake is a reservoir in United States. It covers 413 km². On average it is 2.0 m deep, and 46 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 392 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The water
How warm is Leech Lake?
The water is warmest in July, 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 152 days a year, from around 18 November to 18 April.
On the shore, afternoons reach 27 °C on average in July and -9 °C in January. The driest month is January (16 mm of rain), the wettest June (101 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (77 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 | — | -9 | -19 | 16 | 5 | 4.9 | 19 |
| February | Ice | — | -7 | -17 | 17 | 4 | 7.1 | 20 |
| March | Ice | — | 2 | -8 | 32 | 6 | 7.4 | 20 |
| April | Ice | — | 10 | 0 | 56 | 8 | 7.5 | 20 |
| May | 10 | 15 | 18 | 6 | 82 | 12 | 7.4 | 19 |
| June | 19 | 22 | 24 | 13 | 101 | 14 | 8.2 | 18 |
| July | 22 | 23 | 27 | 16 | 91 | 14 | 9.5 | 16 |
| August | 21 | 22 | 26 | 15 | 74 | 11 | 8.2 | 16 |
| September | 17 | 19 | 21 | 10 | 72 | 10 | 6.2 | 18 |
| October | 10 | 14 | 11 | 2 | 67 | 9 | 4.3 | 19 |
| November | 2 | 5 | 2 | -6 | 27 | 6 | 3.2 | 18 |
| December | Ice | — | -6 | -14 | 24 | 5 | 3.0 | 18 |
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 18 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 2,938 km² of land.
- About 17 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 4.1 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Leech Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 2beaches and swimming spots
- 4campsites
Stony Point Campground, Trails RV, Leech Lake Recreation Area
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 28marinas and slipways
Walker Marine, City Docks and 26 more
- —ferry piers
- —viewpoints
- 15hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Lakeview Inn, Country Inn Walker, Walker Hotel, Chase on the Lake, Leech Lake Resort B&B and 10 more
- —fishing spots
- 16restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Walker928 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport (BRD), 87 km in a straight line.
Car hire at BRD airport (Brainerd)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 | -8.8 | -6.6 | 2.0 | 10.3 | 17.6 | 23.6 | 27.4 | 26.2 | 20.9 | 10.8 | 2.2 | -5.9 |
| 2020 | +0.9 | +0.4 | +1.1 | −2.3 | −1.2 | +1.9 | +0.8 | −0.3 | −2.2 | −3.7 | +1.5 | +2.2 |
| 2021 | +3.3 | −4.4 | +3.8 | −0.5 | +1.0 | +4.5 | +2.4 | +1.7 | +1.4 | +3.3 | −0.4 | +0.1 |
| 2022 | −3.0 | −3.3 | −2.7 | −5.2 | −0.4 | −0.4 | −1.4 | ±0.0 | +0.8 | +1.9 | −1.1 | −2.4 |
| 2023 | +1.7 | +1.7 | −4.0 | −3.2 | +2.9 | +2.7 | −0.5 | +1.3 | +2.7 | +1.6 | +0.8 | +5.8 |
| 2024 | +1.6 | +7.5 | +0.4 | +0.8 | +0.7 | −0.9 | −0.6 | −0.6 | +4.8 | +4.9 | +1.8 | +1.1 |
| 2025 | −1.0 | −2.2 | +2.4 | −0.1 | +2.5 | +0.5 | −0.5 | −0.5 | +1.9 | +4.2 | +1.4 | −1.1 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
United States4.0 km² · 62 km away23°maxRed LakeUnited States1,142 km² · 103 km away22°maxMille Lacs LakeUnited States516 km² · 117 km away22°maxLake of the Woods
Canada3,473 km² · 204 km away22°maxRainy LakeCanada826 km² · 196 km away21°maxLake MinnetonkaUnited States31.1 km² · 255 km away25°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 (Q1812063) · 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.
