Lake · United States
Mille Lacs Lake
Mille Lacs
Lake in Mille Lacs County, Minnesota, United States of America
- Area
- 516km²
- Average depth
- 7.8m
- Elevation
- 377m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 129km
- Volume
- 4.0km³
Mille Lacs Lake is a lake in United States. It covers 516 km². On average it is 7.8 m deep. Its surface lies 377 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Mille Lacs Lake?
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 142 days a year, from around 15 November to 5 April.
On the shore, afternoons reach 28 °C on average in July and -8 °C in January. The driest month is January (15 mm of rain), the wettest June (111 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (131 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 | — | -8 | -17 | 15 | 5 | 4.5 | 19 |
| February | Ice | — | -5 | -16 | 22 | 5 | 6.5 | 20 |
| March | Ice | — | 3 | -7 | 38 | 7 | 7.0 | 19 |
| April | 3 | 8 | 12 | 0 | 69 | 10 | 7.0 | 20 |
| May | 12 | 15 | 19 | 7 | 94 | 12 | 7.2 | 19 |
| June | 18 | 20 | 24 | 13 | 111 | 15 | 8.2 | 17 |
| July | 22 | 22 | 28 | 16 | 100 | 14 | 9.3 | 15 |
| August | 22 | 22 | 26 | 15 | 91 | 12 | 7.9 | 15 |
| September | 19 | 21 | 22 | 10 | 82 | 10 | 6.3 | 18 |
| October | 11 | 16 | 12 | 2 | 75 | 9 | 4.4 | 19 |
| November | Ice | — | 3 | -5 | 31 | 6 | 3.4 | 18 |
| December | Ice | — | -5 | -13 | 30 | 6 | 2.8 | 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 14 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 1,068 km² of land.
- About 9.1 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Mille Lacs Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 3beaches and swimming spots
- 9campsites
Pete's Retreat Campground & RV Park, Lakeview Campground, Maple Grove Campground, Father Hennepin State Park Campgrounds, Mille Lacs Island Resort and 4 more
- 1boat hire and water-sport clubs
Mac's Twin Bay Resort
- 16marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 1viewpoints
Pope Point
- 5hotels, B&Bs and chalets
McQuoids Inn, Northern Inn, Blue Goose Inn, Garrison Inn and Suites
- —fishing spots
- 3restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Vineland1,001 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport (BRD), 41 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.
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 | -7.7 | -5.4 | 3.1 | 11.5 | 18.6 | 24.3 | 27.6 | 26.2 | 21.5 | 11.9 | 3.3 | -4.7 |
| 2020 | +1.2 | +0.4 | +1.3 | −2.2 | −1.6 | +1.2 | +0.2 | −0.2 | −2.1 | −3.8 | +1.7 | +1.9 |
| 2021 | +2.7 | −4.4 | +3.7 | −0.2 | +0.6 | +4.2 | +2.1 | +2.1 | +1.6 | +3.5 | ±0.0 | +0.6 |
| 2022 | −2.8 | −2.7 | −2.5 | −4.3 | ±0.0 | +0.4 | −0.7 | −0.1 | +1.0 | +1.9 | −0.3 | −2.2 |
| 2023 | +1.6 | +1.1 | −4.2 | −3.5 | +2.8 | +2.0 | +0.2 | +1.8 | +2.9 | +1.2 | +1.4 | +5.8 |
| 2024 | +2.3 | +7.5 | +1.2 | +0.4 | +1.2 | −0.9 | −1.3 | −1.5 | +3.2 | +4.5 | +1.3 | +1.5 |
| 2025 | −0.4 | −1.5 | +3.0 | ±0.0 | +1.6 | −0.1 | −0.1 | −0.5 | +1.8 | +3.9 | +1.9 | −1.3 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
United States413 km² · 117 km away22°maxLake MinnetonkaUnited States31.1 km² · 145 km away25°maxBde Maka SkaUnited States1.6 km² · 148 km away26°maxLake ItascaUnited States4.0 km² · 161 km away23°maxRed LakeUnited States1,142 km² · 219 km away22°maxRainy Lake
Canada826 km² · 265 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 (Q1600016) · 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.
