Lake · United Kingdom
Windermere
Largest natural lake in England
- Area
- 12.6km²
- Max depth
- 67m
- Average depth
- 16m
- Elevation
- 40m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 45km
- Volume
- 0.195km³
Windermere is a lake in United Kingdom. It covers 12.6 km². On average it is 16 m deep, and 67 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 40 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Windermere?
The water is warmest in July, around 19 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 5 °C. It rarely averages 20 °C, but it stays above 17 °C from June to August: 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 (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 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 125 | 19 | 0.9 | 25 |
| February | 5 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 100 | 16 | 2.3 | 24 |
| March | 6 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 87 | 16 | 3.8 | 22 |
| April | 9 | 11 | 10 | 4 | 67 | 15 | 5.8 | 20 |
| May | 14 | 16 | 13 | 7 | 80 | 15 | 6.7 | 19 |
| June | 18 | 19 | 16 | 10 | 96 | 17 | 5.8 | 18 |
| July | 19 | 19 | 17 | 12 | 114 | 19 | 5.8 | 17 |
| August | 17 | 18 | 17 | 12 | 128 | 20 | 5.0 | 18 |
| September | 14 | 16 | 15 | 10 | 100 | 17 | 4.2 | 20 |
| October | 11 | 13 | 12 | 8 | 130 | 19 | 2.4 | 22 |
| November | 8 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 129 | 20 | 1.3 | 23 |
| December | 6 | 7 | 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 9 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 244 km² of land.
- About 8.3 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 3.6 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Windermere
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 23beaches and swimming spots
- 17campsites
Hill of Oaks, Fell Foot Wood Campsite, Fallbarrow Holiday Park, White Cross Bay Holiday Park, Newby Bridge Caravan Park and 12 more
- 14boat hire and water-sport clubs
South Windermere Sailing Club, Watersports at Low Wood Bay, Stoked, Windermere Quays Boat Hire, Bowness Bay Marina and 9 more
- 20marinas and slipways
Ferry Nab, Windermere Marina Village, Ferry Nab Marina, Windermere Quays, Waterhead Marine and 15 more
- 16ferry piers
Ferry Nab, Lakeside, Fell Foot, Ambleside Pier 1, Windemere Lake Cruises and 11 more
- 13viewpoints
Orrest Head, Jenkyn's Crag, Biskey Howe, Post Knott and 9 more
- 290hotels, B&Bs and chalets
The White Lion, Holbeck Ghyll Country Park Hotel, Galava Gate, Easedale Lodge, Nagoya and 285 more
- —fishing spots
- 120restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Windermere7,765 people
- Ambleside2,529 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Teesside International Airport (MME), 98 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 Kingdom4.3 km² · 10 km away17°maxDerwentwaterUnited Kingdom5.0 km² · 26 km away18°maxUllswaterUnited Kingdom8.0 km² · 20 km away17°maxWast WaterUnited Kingdom2.5 km² · 24 km away16°maxBassenthwaite LakeUnited Kingdom5.0 km² · 34 km away17°maxSulby Reservoir
Isle of Man0.1 km² · 102 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 (Q390370) · 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.
