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Lake of the Ozarks
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Photo by Mike Trinastich, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Best time to visit Lake of the Ozarks

United States · North America

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Lake of the Ozarks

Tap a month for its page

  1. Lake of the Ozarks in January: avoid
  2. Lake of the Ozarks in February: ok
  3. Lake of the Ozarks in March: good
  4. Lake of the Ozarks in April: sweet spot
  5. Lake of the Ozarks in May: good, busy
  6. Lake of the Ozarks in June: good, busy
  7. Lake of the Ozarks in July: ok, busy
  8. Lake of the Ozarks in August: ok, busy
  9. Lake of the Ozarks in September: sweet spot
  10. Lake of the Ozarks in October: good
  11. Lake of the Ozarks in November: ok
  12. Lake of the Ozarks in December: ok
  • Sweet spot
  • Good
  • OK
  • Avoid
  • Busy
Go in Apr or Sep — 28C max, 3 rainy days. Oct is the next best.

Things to do in Lake of the Ozarks

  • Ha Ha Tonka State Park State park in Missouri, United States
  • Lake of the Ozarks State Park State park in Missouri, United States
  • Bennett Spring State Park State park of Missouri
  • Bridal Cave Cave in United States of America
  • Ozark Caverns Cave in United States of America
  • Old St. Patrick's Church Church building in Missouri, United States of America

Tours and tickets in Lake of the Ozarks

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

MonthMax °CRain days HumiditySun h/day VerdictWhy
Jan 6° 6d 70% 6.0h avoid bitter cold: 6C daily max
Feb 10° 6d 67% 7.3h ok 10C max, 6 rainy days
Mar 16° 10d 66% 7.7h good 16C max, 10 rainy days
Apr 20° 10d 67% 8.9h sweet spot 20C max, 10 rainy days
May 24° 11d 76% 9.9h goodbusy busier than usual
Jun 30° 7d 73% 11.8h goodbusy busier than usual
Jul 32° 6d 74% 12.0h okbusy busier than usual
Aug 30° 5d 74% 11.1h okbusy busier than usual
Sep 28° 3d 70% 10.3h sweet spot 28C max, 3 rainy days
Oct 21° 8d 68% 8.0h good 21C max, 8 rainy days
Nov 14° 6d 69% 7.2h ok 14C max, 6 rainy days
Dec 10° 5d 71% 6.2h ok 10C max, 5 rainy days

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at Osage Beach, on the lake: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest from May to August; quietest in January, February, April, October, November and December.

Then and now

Lake of the Ozarks's December days now average 9.6°C, 3.8°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 3 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
1981–905.4°7.7°13.8°19.2°23.7°28.5°31.5°30.7°26.3°19.5°13.4°5.8°
2017–265.8°9.5°15.6°19.6°24.1°29.7°31.6°30.5°28.5°21.1°13.8°9.6°
Change+0.4°+1.8°+1.8°+0.5°+0.4°+1.2°+0.1°-0.3°+2.2°+1.6°+0.3°+3.8°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

Fly into Columbia (COU), then drive. The flights under Where to book are to Columbia.

Columbia (COU) the drive is not measured yet
Springfield (SGF) the drive is not measured yet

The drive from each airport is the road's, from openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT: typical, not a schedule.

How far Lake of the Ozarks is depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type A and B plugs at 120 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the United states dollar. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Everything for United States: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

  • Paying — Cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay work almost everywhere, though a few small places take cash only. Keep some $1 and $5 notes for tips; Venmo and PayPal are for locals.
  • UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
  • Tipping — Expected: 15–20% in sit-down restaurants (18–20% is standard in New York) and 10–20% for taxi, Uber and Lyft drivers. Large groups may find it already on the bill.

Getting around Lake of the Ozarks

  • Apps — Rides: Lyft, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: Text messages (SMS), WhatsApp. In San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami and some other cities you can also book a driverless Waymo in its own app.

It's a good idea to have a car to get around Lake of the Ozarks. Drive to the Lake of the Ozarks is about three hours by taking Interstate 70 and Missouri Route 5. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Lake of the Ozarks, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

  • Emergency — 911 (any emergency).
    TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (50)

Lake of the Ozarks in pictures

Lake of the Ozarks Community Bridge
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Federal Highway Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Lake of the Ozarks, MO Houses 15
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Ben Jacobson (Kranar Drogin), CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Lake of the Ozarks (central Missouri, USA) 3
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James St. John, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Lake of the Ozarks (central Missouri, USA) 1
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James St. John, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Lake of the Ozarks is like

Lake of the Ozarks region, lake and recreation area is in the Central Missouri region of Missouri. It is a very popular tourist area in the northern part of the Ozarks. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing
Main Street Music Hall Live entertainment: From Opry to "Reelin' In the Years" (60s, 70s, 80s) and also Christmas- something for everyone. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing
Go golfing. There are more than 13 golf courses around the lake. The Lodge of Four Seasons Is a championship course and one of the most challenging in the Midwest. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in
From the north, US Highway 54 coming from Jefferson City runs directly through the city and offers many exits to Lake of the Ozarks. From the west, the Lake of the Ozarks is can be reached via US Highway 65 near Warsaw. More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe
Lake of the Ozarks is the third most accident-prone body of water in the United States, after the Atlantic Ocean and the Colorado River. However, Party Cove is no longer the busy cove it used to be. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Lake of the Ozarks, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around Lake of the Ozarks

Also in United States

Nearby

Kind of place

Lake of the Ozarks is in United States, North America. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book through one, at no extra cost to you. That does not affect the scores on this page, which are computed from climate and holiday data before any link is built.