Lake · United States
Onondaga Lake
Lake in Onondaga County, New York, USA
- Area
- 11.6km²
- Max depth
- 19m
- Average depth
- 5.9m
- Elevation
- 109m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 18km
- Volume
- 0.068km³
Onondaga Lake is a lake in United States. It covers 11.6 km². On average it is 5.9 m deep, and 19 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 Onondaga Lake?
The water is warmest in July, around 25 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from June to September: comfortable for most swimmers.
The lake usually freezes over for about 89 days a year, from around 17 December to 15 March.
On the shore, afternoons reach 28 °C on average in July and -2 °C in January. The driest month is February (70 mm of rain), the wettest October (119 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (98 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 | — | -2 | -9 | 71 | 15 | 1.8 | 13 |
| February | Ice | — | -1 | -8 | 70 | 12 | 2.8 | 13 |
| March | 1 | 4 | 5 | -4 | 76 | 13 | 4.6 | 12 |
| April | 8 | 12 | 12 | 2 | 91 | 13 | 6.0 | 10 |
| May | 16 | 19 | 20 | 8 | 95 | 13 | 7.4 | 8 |
| June | 22 | 24 | 25 | 14 | 108 | 14 | 8.0 | 7 |
| July | 25 | 25 | 28 | 17 | 106 | 15 | 8.5 | 7 |
| August | 25 | 25 | 27 | 16 | 101 | 13 | 7.8 | 7 |
| September | 22 | 24 | 23 | 12 | 97 | 12 | 6.7 | 7 |
| October | 16 | 19 | 15 | 6 | 119 | 14 | 3.8 | 8 |
| November | 8 | 12 | 8 | 0 | 83 | 14 | 2.6 | 10 |
| December | 1 | 4 | 1 | -5 | 93 | 15 | 1.1 | 11 |
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 47 days before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 768 km² of land.
- About 17 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Onondaga Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 1campsites
Empire RV Park
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 3marinas and slipways
Onondaga Lake Park Boat Launch, Onondaga Lake Park Marina
- —ferry piers
- 2viewpoints
- 12hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Staybridge Suites, Holiday Inn, Days Inn, Super 8, Comfort Inn & Suites and 7 more
- 1fishing spots
Onondaga Lake Access
- 51restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Solvay6,425 people
- Westvale4,963 people
- Galeville4,617 people
- Lakeland2,786 people
- Liverpool2,294 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR), 8 km in a straight line.
Car hire at SYR airport (Syracuse)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 | -1.6 | -0.6 | 4.6 | 12.4 | 19.7 | 24.6 | 27.9 | 27.2 | 23.4 | 15.1 | 7.8 | 1.3 |
| 2020 | +2.9 | +0.8 | +3.4 | −2.2 | −1.8 | +1.4 | +2.4 | +1.0 | −0.1 | −0.2 | +3.1 | +0.6 |
| 2021 | +0.5 | −1.8 | +3.4 | +0.8 | −0.3 | +2.6 | −1.9 | +0.9 | −0.9 | +2.8 | −1.1 | +2.4 |
| 2022 | −2.0 | +1.1 | +1.5 | −1.0 | +2.1 | +0.3 | +1.0 | +1.0 | −1.9 | +0.6 | +1.6 | +0.3 |
| 2023 | +3.4 | +3.4 | −0.6 | +2.8 | −0.4 | −1.0 | +0.8 | −1.9 | +0.2 | +1.8 | −1.0 | +3.1 |
| 2024 | +1.5 | +4.0 | +2.8 | +1.3 | +1.9 | +1.6 | +1.5 | −1.1 | +0.5 | +1.6 | +1.7 | −0.1 |
| 2025 | −1.5 | −1.2 | +3.8 | +0.4 | −2.1 | +0.9 | +1.8 | +0.7 | +1.2 | +1.3 | −1.2 | −2.1 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
United States207 km² · 29 km away24°maxLake OntarioUnited States19,347 km² · 120 km away22°maxOwasco LakeUnited States26.6 km² · 35 km away23°maxCayuga LakeUnited States171 km² · 57 km away24°maxSeneca LakeUnited States174 km² · 73 km away24°maxCanandaigua LakeUnited States42.0 km² · 93 km away24°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 (Q3825751) · 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.
