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Russia RussiaIsland

Shumshu

380 km² of land in the Sea of Okhotsk.

When to go

Shumshu seen from space, cut out from the sea (Sentinel-2)
N 2 km

Satellite: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX (CC BY 4.0). Outline and points © OpenStreetMap contributors / Natural Earth. North up.

In numbers

380km²

Area

95km

Coastline

189m

Highest point

0

People

10°C

Warmest sea

August

10km

To the mainland

When to go to Shumshu

Good all year round.

The sea is warmest in August (10 °C) and coolest in March (0 °C). The water never reaches 21 °C: bring a wetsuit.

Sea temperature (the water level) Air: night low to afternoon high Wet days

Averages 1991–2020. Sea: NOAA OISST, the water within 35 km of the coast. Air, rain and sun: NASA POWER. Best months weigh warm afternoons (23–30 °C), sea of 24 °C or more and few wet days.

Island in Kuril Islands, Russia

Shumshu is an island in Russia. It covers 380 km², with 95 km of coastline. Its highest point rises to 189 m. Nobody lives on it. The nearest mainland is 10 km away.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there

  • Yelizovo Airport (PKC)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 305 km in a straight line
  • 10 km from the mainlanddistance to the nearest continental coast

Plan the trip

Ferries, stays and things to do

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

On the island

What you find on Shumshu.

  • 3lighthousesMayak Kurbatova, Mayak Chibuynyy, Babushkino Lighthouse
  • 12named peaksVysokaya, Height 171, Severnaya and 9 more
  • 1ruins and archaeological sites

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, inside the island's outline. A low number may only mean nobody has mapped it yet.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Shumshu in our other atlases

Everything Coastya, Peakyas, Lakeyas and Cascadyas know about what lies inside Shumshu, each with its own numbers.

  • 11mountainsPeakyas
  • 1lakeLakeyas
  • Largest lake

    0.29km²

    Ozero Utinoye

    according to Lakeyas

  • Warmest lake

    15.7°C

    Ozero Utinoye

    surface water, warmest month · according to Lakeyas

11 mountains

on Peakyas, the mountain atlas

  1. Gora Gorbataya
  2. Gora Dal'nyaya
  3. Gora Ozernaya
  4. Gora Ushakova
  5. Gora Vysokaya
  6. Gora Severnaya
  7. Gora Ploshchadka
  8. Gora Storozhevaya

3 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗

1 lakes

on Lakeyas, the lake atlas

  1. Ozero Utinoye0.29km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

The shape of the land.

On average the island stands 89 m above the sea. 100 % of it is below 200 m.

  • 18 %0–50 m
  • 82 %50–200 m

Share of the island's area in each altitude band, from the Copernicus DEM (30 m, read at 30–240 m on large islands).

Size, for real

Next to islands you may know.

Shumshu380 km²
Madeira Island742 km²
Malta247 km²

20 km

All outlines drawn to the same scale (Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap).

Month by month

The weather on the island.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon high (°C)-2-2-1147111211730
Night low (°C)-4-5-3-125811961-2
Sea (°C)11012581010753
Rain (mm)928795716679105112120131136114
Wet days211918131110131414202224
Sun h/day1.62.13.13.94.55.75.24.74.73.11.61.3
Wind (km/h)293129252017151622283231

Averages 1991–2020 for the ~55 km NASA POWER cell over the island; the sea from NOAA OISST.

Recent years

Warmer and cooler years at sea.

Each month's sea temperature compared with its 1991–2020 average, in degrees.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2020−0.4−0.3−0.7−0.1−0.4+0.2+1.0−0.1+0.8+1.8+0.8+0.2
2021−0.8−0.3−0.4−0.6−0.1+0.9+1.0+1.5+0.5+0.2±0.0+0.4
2022+0.7+0.4+0.7+1.1+1.4+1.6+1.8+0.8+0.6+1.0+0.6+0.4
2023−0.4−0.3+0.1+0.5+0.2−0.2−0.6−0.4+0.2+0.3+0.2+0.2
2024+0.3+0.1−0.2+0.2±0.0−0.6−0.2−0.6−0.6−0.3−1.0±0.0
2025+0.4+0.9+0.2+0.6+0.9±0.0+0.4+0.3+0.8+0.9+0.9+0.8

+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual

Photos

Seen by visitors.

Kataoka Bay, Shumshu
逓信協会 · Public domain
Kataoka Bay, Shumshu(2)
小林武二 · Public domain
Kataoka Bay, Shumshu(3)
小林武二 · Public domain

About these numbers

Names, area, populationWikidata (Q838500) · CC0
Outline© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
Sea temperatureNOAA OISST v2.1 · 1991–2020
ClimateNASA POWER · 1991–2020
Relief, 3D modelCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Beaches, ports, lighthouses, trails© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
TownsGeoNames · CC BY 4.0
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Beaches, mountains, lakes and waterfallsPeakyas, Lakeyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0, LakeTEMP (Korver et al. 2024) · CC BY 4.0

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.You are here
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit