Lake · United Kingdom
Ullswater
Lake in the English Lake District
- Area
- 8.0km²
- Max depth
- 63m
- Average depth
- 18m
- Elevation
- 145m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 29km
- Volume
- 0.145km³
Ullswater is a lake in United Kingdom. It covers 8.0 km². On average it is 18 m deep, and 63 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 145 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Ullswater?
The water is warmest in July, around 17 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 4 °C. It rarely averages 20 °C, but it stays above 17 °C in July: brisk, refreshing swimming.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 17 °C on average in July and 6 °C in January. The driest month is April (67 mm of rain), the wettest December (135 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (60 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 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 125 | 19 | 0.9 | 25 |
| February | 4 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 100 | 16 | 2.3 | 24 |
| March | 5 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 87 | 16 | 3.8 | 22 |
| April | 8 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 67 | 15 | 5.8 | 20 |
| May | 12 | 14 | 13 | 7 | 80 | 15 | 6.7 | 19 |
| June | 16 | 17 | 16 | 10 | 96 | 17 | 5.8 | 18 |
| July | 17 | 17 | 17 | 12 | 114 | 19 | 5.8 | 17 |
| August | 16 | 17 | 17 | 12 | 128 | 20 | 5.0 | 18 |
| September | 14 | 15 | 15 | 10 | 100 | 17 | 4.2 | 20 |
| October | 11 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 130 | 19 | 2.4 | 22 |
| November | 8 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 129 | 20 | 1.3 | 23 |
| December | 6 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 135 | 19 | 0.8 | 24 |
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 12 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 145 km² of land.
- About 4.4 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 2.9 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Ullswater
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 5beaches and swimming spots
- 17campsites
Hillcroft Park, Waterfoot Caravan Park, Gillside Caravan Park, Gillside Camping, Park Foot Holiday Park and 12 more
- 5boat hire and water-sport clubs
Lakeland Boat Hire, Ullswater Yacht Club, Glenridding Activity Centre, Ullswater Wake and Surf
- 12marinas and slipways
Fairfield Marine, Ullswater Marine and 10 more
- 3ferry piers
Howtown, Pooley Bridge, Glenridding
- 8viewpoints
- 52hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Wordsworth, Waternook Lakeside Accommodation, Lake View Self Catering, Seldom Seen, Barn End Cottage and 47 more
- —fishing spots
- 14restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Newcastle International Airport (NCL), 96 km in a straight line.
Car hire at BLK airport (Blackpool)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 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 7.2 | 10.1 | 13.3 | 16.1 | 17.4 | 17.1 | 15.2 | 12.1 | 8.6 | 6.3 |
| 2020 | +1.5 | +1.0 | +0.6 | +1.5 | +0.9 | +0.6 | −1.4 | +1.2 | −0.2 | −0.7 | +1.2 | −0.3 |
| 2021 | −1.8 | −0.5 | +0.8 | −1.0 | −1.6 | +1.0 | +2.1 | +0.5 | +2.0 | +0.9 | +0.6 | +0.5 |
| 2022 | +1.0 | +1.6 | +2.1 | +0.6 | +0.2 | +0.3 | +1.3 | +2.1 | +1.0 | +1.3 | +1.4 | −1.2 |
| 2023 | +0.7 | +2.0 | +0.2 | +0.2 | +1.9 | +3.3 | −0.5 | +0.4 | +2.2 | +0.5 | −0.3 | +1.0 |
| 2024 | +0.1 | +2.0 | +1.0 | +0.1 | +2.5 | −0.9 | −0.1 | +0.2 | +0.1 | +0.5 | ±0.0 | +1.6 |
| 2025 | −0.7 | +0.4 | +2.2 | +2.5 | +2.3 | +0.8 | +1.6 | +1.6 | −0.1 | +0.1 | +0.5 | +1.1 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
United Kingdom12.6 km² · 20 km away19°maxDerwentwaterUnited Kingdom5.0 km² · 13 km away18°maxBassenthwaite LakeUnited Kingdom5.0 km² · 19 km away17°maxConiston WaterUnited Kingdom4.3 km² · 25 km away17°maxWast WaterUnited Kingdom2.5 km² · 26 km away16°maxSulby Reservoir
Isle of Man0.1 km² · 106 km awayAbout 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 (Q1973568) · 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.
