Reservoir · Sri Lanka
Tissa Wewa
Artificial lake near Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka
- Area
- 2.2km²
- Average depth
- 2.2m
- Elevation
- 93m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 6.6km
- Volume
- 0.005km³
Tissa Wewa is a reservoir in Sri Lanka. It covers 2.2 km². On average it is 2.2 m deep. Its surface lies 93 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Tissa Wewa?
The water is warmest in April, around 30 °C at the surface, and coldest in December, around 26 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from January to December: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 33 °C on average in April and 28 °C in December. The driest month is June (24 mm of rain), the wettest November (279 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (55 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 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 20 | 89 | 9 | 6.1 | 14 |
| February | 28 | 29 | 30 | 20 | 69 | 6 | 7.5 | 13 |
| March | 30 | 30 | 33 | 22 | 68 | 8 | 8.3 | 11 |
| April | 30 | 30 | 33 | 24 | 118 | 16 | 7.9 | 9 |
| May | 29 | 30 | 32 | 24 | 98 | 10 | 7.5 | 19 |
| June | 27 | 28 | 32 | 24 | 24 | 4 | 7.6 | 24 |
| July | 27 | 27 | 32 | 24 | 29 | 5 | 7.4 | 24 |
| August | 27 | 27 | 32 | 24 | 52 | 7 | 7.3 | 23 |
| September | 28 | 28 | 32 | 24 | 74 | 9 | 7.3 | 21 |
| October | 28 | 28 | 31 | 23 | 220 | 20 | 6.3 | 14 |
| November | 27 | 28 | 29 | 22 | 279 | 22 | 4.7 | 12 |
| December | 26 | 26 | 28 | 22 | 244 | 17 | 4.5 | 14 |
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 20 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 7 km² of land.
- About 0.1 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Tissa Wewa
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- —campsites
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- —viewpoints
- 26hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Water Garden Hotel, The Sanctuary at Thissawewa, Coconut Park, Savindiya Sweet Home, Archeology Circuit Bungalow and 21 more
- —fishing spots
- 10restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: China Bay Airport (TRR), 91 km in a straight line.
Car hire at CMB airport (Colombo)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 | 27.9 | 29.8 | 32.9 | 33.4 | 31.8 | 31.6 | 32.1 | 32.4 | 32.4 | 30.8 | 28.6 | 27.7 |
| 2020 | +0.5 | −0.3 | +1.5 | +2.2 | +0.5 | +0.3 | −1.6 | +0.5 | −2.0 | +1.2 | +0.6 | ±0.0 |
| 2021 | −0.5 | −1.4 | −2.7 | −0.8 | −0.9 | −0.3 | −0.8 | −0.3 | −0.7 | −1.2 | −0.8 | +0.5 |
| 2022 | +0.4 | −1.3 | −1.9 | −2.5 | −1.9 | −1.1 | −0.9 | −1.1 | −0.6 | −0.5 | −0.2 | −0.2 |
| 2023 | −1.0 | −1.7 | −2.6 | −1.0 | −1.7 | ±0.0 | +1.0 | +3.0 | +0.3 | ±0.0 | +0.2 | +0.4 |
| 2024 | +0.1 | −0.5 | −0.4 | +2.9 | +0.8 | +0.1 | +1.0 | −0.2 | +0.8 | −0.2 | +0.2 | +1.0 |
| 2025 | −0.7 | −1.1 | −2.6 | −2.6 | −1.1 | −0.5 | ±0.0 | +0.4 | +0.5 | +0.2 | ±0.0 | −0.1 |
+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 (Q20823336) · 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.
