Lake Onega is relatively cold, with temperatures below for half of the year and average summer temperatures of about . The catchment area of drains into the lake via 58 rivers and more than 110 tributaries, including the Shuya, Suna, Vodla, Vytegra and Andoma. The only outgoing River Svir, which marks the southern boundary of Karelia, runs from the southwestern shore of Lake Onega to Lake Ladoga and continues as the Neva River to the Gulf of Finland. The White Sea–Baltic Canal runs through the lake from the White Sea to the Baltic Sea. The Volga–Baltic Waterway connects Onega Lake with the
Onega stepanovi by an undivided zone. The surface of the undivided region of "Onega" is covered with small tubercles. "Onega" was originally described by Mikhail Fedonkin as a problematic organism, being grouped together with "Vendia", "Praecambridium" and "Vendomia" as possible stem-group arthropods due to a vague similarity with primitive Cambrian trilobites and arthropods. In 1985 Mikhail Fedonkin erected Phylum Proarticulata, in which he placed: "Onega", "Dickinsonia", "Palaeoplatoda", "Vendia", "Vendomia", "Praecambridium" and "Pseudovendia sp.", although he did not exclude the possibility that "Onega" may still be related to various lower Cambrian arthropods, such as "Skania". Andrey Yu. Ivantsov has proposed that "Onega" be