Lake · Canada · United States
Rainy Lake
Lake in Ontario, Canada and Minnesota, United States
- Area
- 826km²
- Max depth
- 50m
- Average depth
- 8.0m
- Elevation
- 334m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 2,156km
- Volume
- 6.6km³
Rainy Lake is a lake in Canada. It covers 826 km². On average it is 8.0 m deep, and 50 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 334 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Rainy Lake?
The water is warmest in August, around 21 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more in August: comfortable for most swimmers.
The lake usually freezes over for about 152 days a year, from around 13 November to 13 April.
On the shore, afternoons reach 26 °C on average in July and -11 °C in January. The driest month is February (21 mm of rain), the wettest June (107 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (112 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 | — | -11 | -20 | 24 | 7 | 3.6 | 10 |
| February | Ice | — | -9 | -19 | 21 | 6 | 6.2 | 10 |
| March | Ice | — | 0 | -10 | 33 | 7 | 7.1 | 10 |
| April | 2 | 5 | 10 | -2 | 50 | 10 | 7.5 | 10 |
| May | 10 | 13 | 17 | 5 | 85 | 14 | 7.3 | 9 |
| June | 16 | 18 | 23 | 11 | 107 | 17 | 7.8 | 9 |
| July | 20 | 21 | 26 | 14 | 89 | 16 | 9.0 | 8 |
| August | 21 | 21 | 25 | 13 | 73 | 13 | 7.8 | 8 |
| September | 18 | 20 | 20 | 8 | 81 | 13 | 6.0 | 9 |
| October | 11 | 15 | 10 | 1 | 62 | 12 | 3.6 | 9 |
| November | Ice | — | 1 | -7 | 36 | 8 | 2.3 | 9 |
| December | Ice | — | -8 | -16 | 28 | 7 | 2.2 | 9 |
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 8 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 38,038 km² of land.
- About 312 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 21.2 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Rainy Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 5beaches and swimming spots
- 49campsites
Labelle's Birch Point Bay Camp, Rainy Lake RV, The Lakeview RV Sites and Cabins, Dryweed Island, Camp Kooch-i-ching and 44 more
- 2boat hire and water-sport clubs
Northernaire Houseboats of Rainy Lake, Rainy Lake Houseboats
- 28marinas and slipways
Bohman Landing, Ranier Public Water Access Site, Seegert's Marine, Rat Root River Public Water Access Site, Ericsburg Public Water Access Site and 23 more
- —ferry piers
- 2viewpoints
- 9hotels, B&Bs and chalets
The Lake House, Sweet Relief LLC, Kettle Falls Hotel, Cantilever Hotel, Labelle's Birch Point Bay Camp and 4 more
- 2fishing spots
Paradise Outfitters
- 4restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Falls International Airport (INL), 46 km in a straight line.
OpenStreetMap 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 | -10.7 | -8.6 | 0.4 | 9.7 | 17.3 | 22.9 | 26.1 | 24.9 | 19.6 | 9.8 | 1.0 | -7.6 |
| 2020 | +2.3 | +0.8 | +0.5 | −2.1 | −0.1 | +0.9 | +1.2 | +0.4 | −2.3 | −4.0 | +1.3 | +2.0 |
| 2021 | +3.6 | −3.3 | +4.8 | +0.3 | +1.2 | +3.5 | +2.9 | +2.2 | +1.6 | +4.0 | +0.2 | +0.9 |
| 2022 | −4.0 | −3.6 | −2.6 | −4.7 | −0.5 | −0.7 | −2.2 | −0.5 | −0.2 | +1.1 | −1.1 | −1.3 |
| 2023 | +2.3 | +1.7 | −3.6 | −4.7 | +2.5 | +2.5 | −1.8 | −0.2 | +2.5 | +1.4 | −0.5 | +6.7 |
| 2024 | +2.2 | +6.5 | +0.4 | +0.6 | +0.2 | −0.8 | −0.7 | −0.1 | +4.7 | +4.0 | +3.0 | +0.9 |
| 2025 | −1.0 | −1.7 | +1.9 | −1.0 | +2.9 | +0.6 | −1.2 | −0.3 | +2.3 | +4.4 | +0.8 | −1.4 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
Canada3,473 km² · 155 km away22°maxRed LakeUnited States1,142 km² · 181 km away22°maxLeech LakeUnited States413 km² · 196 km away22°maxLake ItascaUnited States4.0 km² · 235 km away23°maxMille Lacs LakeUnited States516 km² · 265 km away22°maxLake NipigonCanada4,506 km² · 358 km away18°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 (Q202019) · 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.
