Reservoir · Norway
Mjøsa
Lake in Norway
- Area
- 365km²
- Max depth
- 453m
- Average depth
- 80m
- Elevation
- 109m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 340km
- Volume
- 29.0km³
Mjøsa is a reservoir in Norway. It covers 365 km². On average it is 80 m deep, and 453 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 109 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Mjøsa?
The water is warmest in August, around 17 °C at the surface, and coldest in March, around 1 °C. Even at its warmest, the surface stays below 17 °C on average: this is cold water.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 20 °C on average in July and -5 °C in January. The driest month is March (59 mm of rain), the wettest August (130 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (116 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 | 3 | 3 | -5 | -10 | 81 | 14 | 0.6 | 7 |
| February | 1 | 2 | -4 | -10 | 60 | 12 | 2.4 | 7 |
| March | 1 | 1 | 0 | -7 | 59 | 12 | 5.2 | 7 |
| April | 2 | 3 | 7 | -1 | 62 | 12 | 6.6 | 7 |
| May | 6 | 9 | 13 | 4 | 105 | 15 | 7.3 | 7 |
| June | 12 | 15 | 18 | 9 | 104 | 15 | 8.7 | 7 |
| July | 17 | 18 | 20 | 12 | 124 | 19 | 7.6 | 6 |
| August | 17 | 18 | 18 | 10 | 130 | 17 | 6.2 | 6 |
| September | 13 | 15 | 13 | 6 | 100 | 13 | 4.7 | 7 |
| October | 9 | 11 | 6 | 1 | 106 | 16 | 2.4 | 7 |
| November | 6 | 8 | 0 | -4 | 98 | 16 | 0.8 | 7 |
| December | 4 | 5 | -4 | -9 | 80 | 14 | 0.4 | 7 |
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 3.3 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 16,680 km² of land.
- About 276 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 5.0 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Mjøsa
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 246beaches and swimming spots
Boligvika, Nerkvernstranda, Sanda badeplass, Møkkvika badeplass, Pellervikstranda and 241 more
- 15campsites
Røysheim Rom & Hytteutleie, Lillehammer Camping, Hekshusstranda Camping, Tangenodden Camping, Evjua Strandpark and 10 more
- 3boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 162marinas and slipways
Tangen båtplass and 161 more
- 11ferry piers
Nes, Evjua, Atlungstad, Kapp, Moelv and 6 more
- 24viewpoints
Skreikampen, Geiteryggen, Verdens ende, Ramberget and 20 more
- 33hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Home Hotel Astoria, Scandic Hamar, Quality Hotel Strand, Kløverhotellet, Honne hotell og konferansesenter and 28 more
- 2fishing spots
- 133restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Hamar29,479 people
- Lillehammer29,011 people
- Gjøvik17,596 people
- Brumunddal11,019 people
- Moelv4,547 people
- Skreia1,036 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Oslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL), 55 km in a straight line.
Car hire at OSL airport (Oslo)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 | -4.7 | -3.6 | 0.4 | 6.9 | 13.4 | 17.6 | 19.7 | 18.0 | 13.4 | 6.3 | 0.4 | -3.9 |
| 2020 | +5.3 | +3.7 | +1.3 | +0.9 | −1.5 | +3.3 | −3.2 | +1.4 | +0.4 | +1.0 | +3.4 | +2.9 |
| 2021 | −4.2 | −3.1 | +1.3 | −0.9 | −1.3 | +2.8 | +2.1 | −0.5 | +0.6 | +2.1 | +0.4 | −1.6 |
| 2022 | +2.3 | +2.2 | +2.1 | +1.1 | −0.2 | +1.6 | −0.5 | +1.6 | −0.7 | +2.0 | +2.5 | −3.0 |
| 2023 | +0.7 | +2.2 | −1.6 | −2.4 | +1.0 | +3.9 | −1.6 | −0.2 | +2.2 | −0.8 | −4.5 | −3.8 |
| 2024 | −1.8 | +0.5 | +0.4 | −2.5 | +5.0 | −0.2 | −1.2 | +0.1 | +1.4 | +2.3 | +1.1 | +2.3 |
| 2025 | +0.6 | +0.5 | +2.9 | +4.3 | +0.3 | −0.5 | +2.7 | −0.2 | +0.9 | +1.3 | +2.1 | +3.9 |
+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 (Q212209) · 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.
