Lake · Finland
Oulujärvi
Lake of Northern Ostrobothnia and Kainuu, Finland
- Area
- 890km²
- Max depth
- 38m
- Average depth
- 7.0m
- Elevation
- 106m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 715km
- Volume
- 6.2km³
Oulujärvi is a lake in Finland. It covers 890 km². On average it is 7.0 m deep, and 38 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 106 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Oulujärvi?
The water is warmest in July, around 18 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. It rarely averages 20 °C, but it stays above 17 °C from July to August: brisk, refreshing swimming.
The lake usually freezes over for about 163 days a year, from around 13 November to 24 April.
On the shore, afternoons reach 20 °C on average in July and -9 °C in January. The driest month is February (42 mm of rain), the wettest July (116 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (124 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 | -15 | 54 | 13 | 0.6 | 11 |
| February | Ice | — | -8 | -14 | 42 | 12 | 2.1 | 12 |
| March | Ice | — | -3 | -10 | 49 | 12 | 5.1 | 12 |
| April | Ice | — | 3 | -2 | 49 | 12 | 6.7 | 11 |
| May | 6 | 10 | 12 | 4 | 88 | 15 | 7.9 | 11 |
| June | 14 | 17 | 17 | 10 | 94 | 16 | 9.0 | 10 |
| July | 18 | 19 | 20 | 13 | 116 | 19 | 8.2 | 9 |
| August | 17 | 18 | 18 | 11 | 106 | 17 | 6.4 | 9 |
| September | 13 | 15 | 12 | 6 | 89 | 15 | 3.7 | 10 |
| October | 7 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 75 | 16 | 1.2 | 10 |
| November | Ice | — | -2 | -6 | 70 | 15 | 0.2 | 10 |
| December | Ice | — | -6 | -11 | 66 | 15 | 0.2 | 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 10 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 20,744 km² of land.
- About 228 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 6.8 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Oulujärvi
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 20beaches and swimming spots
Pöyhölänniemen uimaranta, Savirannan uimaranta, Sahanranta, Metelinniemen uimaranta, Paltaniemen uimaranta and 15 more
- 4campsites
Paltamo Caravan, Oulujärvi Active camping, Oulujärven Lomakylä, SFC-kohtauspaikka
- 1boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 25marinas and slipways
Ruununtörmän vierasvenesatama, Kilonniemen kalasatama, Kirppuniemi, Vuottolahti, Melalahti venesatama and 20 more
- —ferry piers
- —viewpoints
- 9hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Hotel Kajanus, Original Sokos Hotel Valjus, Karolineburgin kartano, Pätkä, Matkakoti Keidas and 4 more
- —fishing spots
- 30restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Kajaani36,458 people
- Paltamo2,972 people
- Vaala2,567 people
- Vuolijoki2,557 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Kajaani Airport (KAJ), 23 km in a straight line.
Car hire at KAJ airport (Kajaani)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 | -9.3 | -8.0 | -3.2 | 3.1 | 11.8 | 16.7 | 20.1 | 17.6 | 12.0 | 3.6 | -2.3 | -6.3 |
| 2020 | +6.2 | +3.5 | +1.9 | −1.5 | −2.4 | +3.7 | −2.1 | +0.3 | +0.9 | +1.8 | +2.7 | +1.4 |
| 2021 | −2.6 | −3.6 | +0.1 | +0.1 | −0.7 | +4.4 | +2.4 | −1.3 | −2.5 | +1.4 | +0.1 | −3.1 |
| 2022 | +1.6 | +2.5 | +1.6 | −1.3 | −0.8 | +2.0 | ±0.0 | +2.0 | −1.9 | +2.1 | −1.0 | −0.9 |
| 2023 | +4.3 | +2.2 | −1.4 | −1.4 | +0.9 | +1.5 | −1.6 | +2.1 | +3.0 | −1.8 | −4.4 | −3.4 |
| 2024 | −2.4 | +0.7 | +1.4 | −3.8 | +1.4 | +3.3 | +0.8 | +2.3 | +3.7 | +2.2 | +1.9 | +1.1 |
| 2025 | +1.7 | +2.6 | +2.7 | +2.0 | −0.7 | −0.8 | +2.9 | +0.2 | +3.0 | +2.5 | +1.8 | +2.7 |
+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 (Q580019) · 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.
