Lake · Finland
Päijänne
The deepest and the second largest lake of Finland
- Area
- 1,270km²
- Max depth
- 95m
- Average depth
- 14m
- Elevation
- 65m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 2,249km
- Volume
- 17.8km³
Päijänne is a lake in Finland. It covers 1,270 km². On average it is 14 m deep, and 95 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 65 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Päijänne?
The water is warmest in July, around 19 °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 131 days a year, from around 4 December to 13 April.
On the shore, afternoons reach 22 °C on average in July and -6 °C in January. The driest month is March (40 mm of rain), the wettest July (98 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (94 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 | — | -6 | -12 | 54 | 14 | 0.5 | 10 |
| February | Ice | — | -6 | -12 | 41 | 11 | 2.0 | 10 |
| March | Ice | — | -1 | -7 | 40 | 11 | 5.0 | 11 |
| April | 1 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 47 | 11 | 6.5 | 11 |
| May | 8 | 11 | 15 | 6 | 64 | 12 | 8.2 | 10 |
| June | 15 | 18 | 18 | 11 | 96 | 16 | 8.1 | 10 |
| July | 19 | 20 | 22 | 14 | 98 | 17 | 8.0 | 9 |
| August | 19 | 20 | 20 | 13 | 82 | 16 | 6.5 | 9 |
| September | 15 | 17 | 14 | 8 | 70 | 13 | 3.9 | 10 |
| October | 10 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 74 | 14 | 1.6 | 10 |
| November | 4 | 6 | 0 | -3 | 66 | 14 | 0.0 | 10 |
| December | Ice | — | -4 | -8 | 64 | 15 | 0.1 | 10 |
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 2.9 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 21,979 km² of land.
- About 193 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 17.8 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Päijänne
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 49beaches and swimming spots
Mattilanniemen uimapaikka, Paavalinvuoren uimaranta, Uimaranta, Särkilahden uimaranta, Talvilahden uimaranta and 44 more
- 2campsites
Karijärvi Camping
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 40marinas and slipways
Jaakkolan satama, Jokiniemen veneluiska, vierassatama, Suopellon veneluiska, Ilveslahden veneluiska and 35 more
- 2ferry piers
- 13viewpoints
- —fishing spots
Towns on the shore
- Jyväskylä148,744 people
- Laukaa18,876 people
- Muurame10,662 people
- Asikkala7,870 people
- Korpilahti5,050 people
- Sysmä3,393 people
- Säynätsalo3,322 people
- Padasjoki2,670 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Tampere-Pirkkala Airport (TMP), 97 km in a straight line.
Car hire at TMP airport (Tampere / Pirkkala)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 | -6.5 | -5.5 | -0.8 | 7.1 | 14.6 | 18.4 | 21.5 | 19.6 | 14.1 | 6.1 | 0.3 | -3.6 |
| 2020 | +7.2 | +5.3 | +3.1 | −1.5 | −2.5 | +3.5 | −2.3 | +0.2 | +0.8 | +2.3 | +3.0 | +2.0 |
| 2021 | −1.9 | −3.5 | −0.4 | ±0.0 | −1.0 | +4.6 | +2.6 | −1.5 | −3.0 | +1.9 | +0.4 | −4.0 |
| 2022 | +1.7 | +2.6 | +0.5 | −1.4 | −1.4 | +1.9 | −0.2 | +2.3 | −2.2 | +2.2 | −0.4 | −1.4 |
| 2023 | +3.2 | +2.6 | −0.4 | +1.4 | −0.1 | +1.9 | −1.6 | +1.0 | +3.3 | −1.8 | −3.7 | −4.3 |
| 2024 | −3.0 | +0.2 | +1.4 | −2.4 | +3.3 | +2.5 | +0.5 | +1.1 | +3.5 | +2.5 | +1.7 | +1.9 |
| 2025 | +3.5 | +2.2 | +4.0 | +0.8 | −1.9 | −0.8 | +2.4 | −1.1 | +2.2 | +1.5 | +2.7 | +3.4 |
+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 (Q213769) · 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.
