Lake · Canada
Okanagan Lake
Lake in British Columbia, Canada
- Area
- 349km²
- Max depth
- 232m
- Average depth
- 107m
- Elevation
- 342m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 280km
- Volume
- 37.4km³
Okanagan Lake is a lake in Canada. It covers 349 km². On average it is 107 m deep, and 232 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 342 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 Okanagan Lake?
The water is warmest in July, around 23 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 1 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from June to August: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 25 °C on average in July and -3 °C in December. The driest month is August (22 mm of rain), the wettest June (60 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 | 2 | 3 | -3 | -11 | 37 | 11 | 1.6 | 7 |
| February | 1 | 2 | 0 | -10 | 27 | 8 | 4.2 | 7 |
| March | 3 | 5 | 4 | -6 | 36 | 10 | 5.5 | 7 |
| April | 8 | 11 | 10 | -2 | 34 | 9 | 6.7 | 7 |
| May | 14 | 18 | 17 | 3 | 48 | 11 | 7.7 | 6 |
| June | 20 | 22 | 20 | 7 | 60 | 12 | 7.8 | 6 |
| July | 23 | 23 | 25 | 10 | 29 | 7 | 10.3 | 6 |
| August | 21 | 22 | 25 | 10 | 22 | 6 | 9.3 | 6 |
| September | 18 | 20 | 19 | 5 | 33 | 8 | 6.7 | 6 |
| October | 13 | 15 | 10 | -1 | 41 | 10 | 3.8 | 7 |
| November | 8 | 10 | 2 | -6 | 43 | 12 | 1.3 | 7 |
| December | 5 | 6 | -3 | -11 | 42 | 12 | 1.2 | 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 36 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 5,963 km² of land.
- About 33 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 4.2 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Okanagan Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 137beaches and swimming spots
Poplar point beach, Tugboat Bay Beach, Powell Beach, Marina Way Beach, Swim Bay Beach and 132 more
- 18campsites
Evely Campground, Todd's RV & Camping, Sandy Beach RV Park, Ellison Provincial Campground, Peach Orchard Campground and 13 more
- 3boat hire and water-sport clubs
Paddle Board Rentals
- 51marinas and slipways
Paddlewheel Park Boat Launch, Cedar Creek Boat Launch, Kelowna Yacht Club, Penticton Marina, Shelter Bay Marina and 46 more
- —ferry piers
- 98viewpoints
Summerhill Winery, Okanagan Lake Viewpoint, Fur Brigade Viewpoint, Fur Brigade Viewpoint 2 and 94 more
- 54hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Riverside Motel, Ramada Inn & Suites, Siesta Suites, Delta Grand Okanagan Resort & Conference Centre, Oasis Inn and 49 more
- —fishing spots
- 207restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Kelowna144,576 people
- Okanagan Mission38,374 people
- Penticton33,761 people
- West Kelowna28,793 people
- Summerland11,615 people
- Winfield9,100 people
- Peachland5,006 people
- Lakeview Heights3,694 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Kelowna International Airport (YLW), 25 km in a straight line.
Car hire at YLW airport (Kelowna)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 | -2.8 | -0.3 | 4.1 | 9.8 | 16.7 | 20.3 | 25.4 | 24.9 | 18.6 | 9.9 | 1.7 | -3.3 |
| 2020 | +0.8 | +0.7 | −2.1 | −1.2 | −1.1 | −2.1 | −2.3 | −1.0 | +2.5 | −0.4 | +0.5 | +1.8 |
| 2021 | +1.2 | −2.7 | +0.5 | +1.6 | −0.3 | +4.7 | +3.6 | −1.6 | −0.2 | −0.8 | +1.7 | −3.0 |
| 2022 | +1.3 | +0.9 | +1.1 | −2.5 | −3.5 | −1.4 | +1.5 | +2.6 | +3.2 | +5.9 | −4.2 | −3.9 |
| 2023 | +1.1 | −0.8 | −1.2 | −0.8 | +4.6 | +2.5 | +1.7 | +0.8 | +0.5 | +1.9 | +0.3 | +3.1 |
| 2024 | −1.8 | +0.5 | +0.4 | −0.1 | −1.6 | −1.5 | +3.1 | +0.2 | +1.6 | +0.1 | −1.5 | +2.1 |
| 2025 | −1.6 | −5.3 | +0.2 | +0.8 | −0.4 | +0.1 | −1.2 | −0.8 | +3.8 | −1.0 | +0.7 | +2.6 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
United StatesAbout 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 (Q525072) · 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.
