Lake · Canada
Shuswap Lake
Lake in British Columbia, Canada
- Area
- 306km²
- Max depth
- 161m
- Average depth
- 144m
- Elevation
- 348m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 332km
- Volume
- 44.0km³
Shuswap Lake is a lake in Canada. It covers 306 km². On average it is 144 m deep, and 161 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 348 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Shuswap Lake?
The water is warmest in July, around 22 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from July to August: comfortable for most swimmers.
The lake usually freezes over for about 49 days a year, from around 7 January to 24 February.
On the shore, afternoons reach 21 °C on average in July and -7 °C in December. The driest month is August (44 mm of rain), the wettest November (126 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (107 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 | -13 | 114 | 19 | 1.1 | 6 |
| February | Ice | — | -5 | -14 | 74 | 15 | 3.5 | 6 |
| March | 2 | 4 | -1 | -9 | 95 | 17 | 4.3 | 6 |
| April | 7 | 10 | 3 | -4 | 65 | 15 | 6.2 | 5 |
| May | 13 | 16 | 12 | 2 | 72 | 15 | 7.4 | 5 |
| June | 19 | 21 | 17 | 7 | 94 | 17 | 6.8 | 5 |
| July | 22 | 22 | 21 | 10 | 56 | 12 | 8.9 | 5 |
| August | 21 | 22 | 20 | 9 | 44 | 10 | 8.4 | 5 |
| September | 18 | 20 | 15 | 5 | 72 | 12 | 5.8 | 5 |
| October | 13 | 16 | 6 | -2 | 105 | 16 | 3.1 | 5 |
| November | 7 | 10 | -2 | -9 | 126 | 19 | 0.9 | 6 |
| December | 2 | 4 | -7 | -15 | 104 | 19 | 0.8 | 6 |
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 5.5 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 15,278 km² of land.
- About 255 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 5.4 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Shuswap Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 15beaches and swimming spots
Public Beach, Sky Blue Waters Resort Beach, Canoe Beach, Nielsen Beach and 11 more
- 14campsites
Ruckell Point Scout Camp, Sandy Point Campground, Camp Grafton, Campground & RV Park, Group Camp and 9 more
- 2boat hire and water-sport clubs
SeaDog Rentals
- 10marinas and slipways
Canoe Boat ramp, Canoe Beach Boat Ramp, Bristow Road Boat Launch, Captain's Cove Marina and 6 more
- 4ferry piers
- 18viewpoints
Sandy Point, Blind Bay Lookout, Sicamous Lookout and 15 more
- 13hotels, B&Bs and chalets
SureStay Plus Hotel by Best Western Salmon Arm, HI Shuswap Lake, Prestige Harbourfront Resort, BW Premier Collection, Hilltop Inn Salmon Arm, Comfort Inn & Suites Salmon Arm and 8 more
- —fishing spots
- 32restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Salmon Arm19,432 people
- Blind Bay2,369 people
- Sicamous1,786 people
- Sorrento1,309 people
- Canoe1,081 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Kamloops John Moose Fulton Field Regional Airport (YKA), 100 km in a straight line.
Car hire at YKA airport (Kamloops)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 | -5.9 | -4.7 | -0.9 | 3.1 | 12.2 | 16.6 | 20.7 | 20.2 | 14.7 | 6.1 | -2.3 | -7.3 |
| 2020 | +1.2 | +1.1 | −1.3 | −2.5 | −3.1 | −1.4 | −2.1 | −1.4 | +1.6 | −1.4 | +1.0 | +2.5 |
| 2021 | +1.0 | −2.2 | +0.8 | −1.1 | −0.8 | +3.8 | +3.3 | −1.3 | −1.2 | −0.8 | +1.9 | −3.2 |
| 2022 | +0.8 | +0.7 | +0.5 | −2.5 | −4.3 | −0.4 | +1.5 | +2.4 | +3.3 | +5.7 | −3.4 | −2.8 |
| 2023 | +1.2 | −0.2 | −0.9 | −1.3 | +4.5 | +2.8 | +1.7 | +1.1 | +0.7 | +2.7 | +0.2 | +4.2 |
| 2024 | −1.0 | +1.7 | +0.1 | −0.1 | −0.9 | −1.5 | +2.7 | +0.5 | +1.4 | +0.1 | −0.7 | +3.8 |
| 2025 | −1.5 | −3.0 | +0.9 | −0.3 | +0.7 | +0.7 | −0.4 | +0.5 | +4.0 | −0.2 | +1.1 | +4.1 |
+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 (Q1325911) · 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.
