Largest lakes & reservoirs in Central Illinois by water volume
The estimated volume of water that a lake contains is measured at the lake’s normal elevation. By this measure, the world’s largest freshwater lake is Siberia’s Lake Baikal.Water Volume can be measured in acre-feet, in cubic miles, or in cubic kilometers. One acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover one acre (43,560 square feet) to a depth of one foot. One cubic mile equals 3,379,200 acre-feet. One cubic kilometer equals 810,713 acre-feet. 1 acre-foot is equal to 325,851 US gallons. Siberia’s Lake Baikal contains about 6,276,367,740,000,000 gallons of freshwater – nearly 1 million gallons for every living person on earth.
The other – and more widely used – measure of a lake’s size is the lake’s surface acreage. By that measure, the world’s largest freshwater lake is North America’s Lake Superior.
Note: In the United States, an acre foot is a unit of volume used to refer to large-scale bodies of water. It is defined by the volume of water needed to cover 1 acre of surface area to a depth of 1 foot.
You can find many of the the world’s largest lakes (by water volume) on LakeLubbers. Note: For some lakes, the water volume data is unknown or does not apply, so you may see fewer lakes than the total 15 articles we have published for Central Illinois lakes.
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Below are lakes within USA > US Midwest Region > Illinois > Central Illinois > Compared by water volume. This list does not represent all lakes in Central Illinois, only the 15 Central Illinois lake articles we have published on the LakeLubbers website.
Lake name  |
Water vol. in ac-ft |
Lake description |
|---|---|---|
| Lake Shelbyville, IL (Central Illinois, Illinois, US Midwest Region, USA) |
210,000 ac-ft | (Also known as Shelbyville Lake, Shelbyville Reservoir) Seventeen miles and thousands of acres of water stretch out in front of power boaters leaving the dam at Lake Shelbyville. In addition to its wide exp… |
| Evergreen Lake (Central Illinois, Illinois, US Midwest Region, USA) |
15,480 ac-ft | (Also known as Evergreen Reservoir) One of Central Illinois’ best-kept secret lies just north of Bloomington: Evergreen Lake. When the growing city needed additional water supply in 1971… |
| Lake Sara, IL (Central Illinois, Illinois, US Midwest Region, USA) |
12,007 ac-ft | (Also known as Sara Reservoir) Lake Sara – a refreshing oasis in central Illinois! What does a community like Effingham Illinois do when they run out of water? They build a reservoi… |
| Lake Mattoon, IL (Central Illinois, Illinois, US Midwest Region, USA) |
11,820 ac-ft | Surrounded by farmlands in the Central region of Illinois is Lake Mattoon. A quiet and tranquil retreat for many Illinoisans and out-of-towners, the l… |
| Lake Petersburg, IL (Central Illinois, Illinois, US Midwest Region, USA) |
4,310 ac-ft | (Also known as Petersburg Lake, Petersburg Reservoir) Something in human nature seems to require a water body to feel complete: Lake Petersburg fills that need. The people of Petersburg on the border betw… |
| Lake Carlinville, IL (Central Illinois, Illinois, US Midwest Region, USA) |
2,110 ac-ft | (Also known as Carlinville Lake, Lake 1 and Lake 2) Located in the Central region of Illinois, Lake Carlinville (also known as Carlinville Lake) is a 355-acre lake used for drinking water and recreation… |