Satellites provide useful data to study environmental geographic patterns and long-term trends. We used thermal measurements made by the satellites Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 to create the LakeSST data set. It contains surface temperature data for 442 French water bodies (natural lakes, reservoirs, ponds, gravel pit lakes and quarry lakes) for 1999–2016. This data, with an accuracy of about 1.2 ºC, will allow a better monitoring and study of the thermal behaviour of freshwater bodies.