Reservoir · Canada
Williston Lake
Large reservoir in British Columbia, Canada
- Area
- 1,719km²
- Max depth
- 166m
- Average depth
- 43m
- Elevation
- 659m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 1,558km
- Volume
- 74.3km³
Williston Lake is a reservoir in Canada. It covers 1,719 km². On average it is 43 m deep, and 166 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 659 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Williston Lake?
The water is warmest in August, around 17 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. Even at its warmest, the surface stays below 17 °C on average: this is cold water.
The lake usually freezes over for about 163 days a year, from around 11 November to 22 April.
On the shore, afternoons reach 17 °C on average in July and -11 °C in December. The driest month is February (38 mm of rain), the wettest June (93 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (104 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 | — | -10 | -18 | 63 | 15 | 2.2 | 8 |
| February | Ice | — | -9 | -18 | 38 | 10 | 4.7 | 7 |
| March | Ice | — | -5 | -14 | 58 | 14 | 6.6 | 8 |
| April | Ice | — | 1 | -7 | 46 | 12 | 8.3 | 8 |
| May | 5 | 9 | 10 | 0 | 68 | 14 | 8.0 | 8 |
| June | 12 | 15 | 15 | 5 | 93 | 17 | 8.4 | 7 |
| July | 16 | 17 | 17 | 8 | 82 | 17 | 8.5 | 7 |
| August | 17 | 17 | 16 | 7 | 70 | 14 | 7.7 | 7 |
| September | 14 | 16 | 11 | 2 | 62 | 13 | 5.7 | 7 |
| October | 7 | 11 | 2 | -4 | 75 | 16 | 3.6 | 7 |
| November | Ice | — | -6 | -14 | 76 | 16 | 1.9 | 7 |
| December | Ice | — | -11 | -19 | 57 | 14 | 1.7 | 7 |
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 2.0 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 71,707 km² of land.
- About 1,167 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 10.6 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Williston Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 6campsites
Weston Creek (Bay) Recreation Site and 5 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 1marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- —viewpoints
- 2hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Omineca Camp, Collins Bay Camp
- —fishing spots
- —restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Mackenzie3,262 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Fort St John / North Peace Regional Airport (YXJ), 197 km in a straight line.
Car hire at YXJ airport (Fort Saint John)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Photos
Seen by visitors
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 | -10.3 | -8.8 | -5.0 | 0.7 | 9.9 | 14.9 | 17.1 | 16.1 | 10.6 | 2.4 | -6.4 | -11.4 |
| 2020 | −2.8 | +2.6 | −1.9 | −1.0 | +1.0 | −1.9 | −1.3 | −2.5 | +0.5 | −2.0 | −0.6 | +3.0 |
| 2021 | +1.5 | −4.3 | +2.7 | +0.2 | −0.6 | +2.7 | +1.1 | −0.2 | −0.6 | −0.9 | +3.3 | −6.7 |
| 2022 | −0.4 | +2.4 | +2.5 | −2.2 | −3.3 | +1.0 | +0.8 | +4.2 | +3.7 | +5.6 | −2.5 | −4.9 |
| 2023 | +3.7 | +0.8 | −1.3 | +0.6 | +6.1 | +2.2 | +2.1 | +3.0 | +1.8 | +2.2 | +3.3 | +5.2 |
| 2024 | −2.9 | −0.1 | +0.5 | +1.3 | +0.2 | −0.9 | +2.8 | +1.8 | +1.1 | +0.2 | −2.9 | +2.8 |
| 2025 | +1.3 | −2.8 | +1.6 | +2.0 | +0.2 | +0.1 | −0.3 | +2.0 | +3.6 | +1.4 | +1.3 | −2.2 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
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 (Q967775) · 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.
