Lake · Jordan · Palestine · Israel
Dead Sea
Lake with no outflow (sea) in Western Asia
- Area
- 643km²
- Max depth
- 360m
- Average depth
- 177m
- Elevation
- -415m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 154km
- Volume
- 114km³
Dead Sea is a lake in Jordan. It covers 643 km². On average it is 177 m deep, and 360 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 415 m below sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Dead Sea?
The water is warmest in August, around 32 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 22 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from January to December: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 38 °C on average in July and 17 °C in January. The driest month is July (0 mm of rain), the wettest January (46 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (131 readings). Shallow bays and beaches are often warmer.
From above
The whole lake from space
Month by month
The year at the lake, month by month
Not a forecast: these are averages over many years. Water is the 2013–2021 average; air, rain, sun and wind are the 1991–2020 average.
Water: 2013–2021 averageClimate: 1991–2020 average
| Month | Water°C | Water high°C | Air high°C | Air low°C | Rainmm | Rainy daysdays | Sunh/day | Windkm/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 22 | 22 | 17 | 7 | 46 | 8 | 6.2 | 12 |
| February | 22 | 22 | 20 | 8 | 42 | 8 | 6.9 | 12 |
| March | 22 | 23 | 23 | 11 | 23 | 5 | 8.7 | 12 |
| April | 24 | 24 | 28 | 14 | 10 | 2 | 10.1 | 11 |
| May | 26 | 27 | 33 | 18 | 5 | 1 | 11.8 | 11 |
| June | 29 | 30 | 36 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 13.5 | 10 |
| July | 31 | 32 | 38 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 13.2 | 10 |
| August | 32 | 32 | 38 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 12.2 | 10 |
| September | 31 | 32 | 35 | 22 | 1 | 0 | 10.9 | 10 |
| October | 28 | 30 | 31 | 19 | 6 | 2 | 9.1 | 10 |
| November | 25 | 26 | 25 | 14 | 20 | 4 | 7.5 | 11 |
| December | 23 | 24 | 20 | 9 | 33 | 7 | 6.4 | 12 |
Water: LakeTEMP (Landsat 8, 2013–2021). Air, rain, sun and wind: NASA POWER, 1991–2020 averages. A rainy day has at least 1 mm of rain. Sunshine hours are derived from measured solar radiation.
Size & depth
How big, how deep
- On average, water stays in the lake for about 45 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 43,272 km² of land.
- About 80 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Dead Sea
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 23beaches and swimming spots
Neve Midbar, Kalia Beach, Wadi Mujib Beach access, Metsoke Dragot Beach, Minerals Beach and 18 more
- 2campsites
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 25viewpoints
David Waterfall, Dead Sea Panorama Complex, END OF ZARA CLIFF TRAIL and 22 more
- 17hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Marriott Hotel, King Hussein Bin Talal Convention Center, Ein Gedi Hostel, Ein Gedi Field School, O Beach and 12 more
- —fishing spots
- 21restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Queen Alia International Airport (AMM), 56 km in a straight line.
Car hire at AMM airport (Amman)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Recent years
How each month compared
Afternoon high on the shore. The first row is the reference, the 1991–2020 average in °C; the years below show the difference from it: warmer in orange, cooler in blue.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–2020 average | 17.4 | 19.5 | 23.4 | 27.7 | 32.9 | 36.3 | 37.9 | 37.5 | 35.0 | 31.0 | 24.6 | 19.5 |
| 2020 | −1.8 | −1.0 | −1.1 | −1.8 | −0.4 | −1.0 | +0.6 | +0.1 | +3.7 | +2.5 | −0.7 | +1.6 |
| 2021 | +2.3 | +1.1 | −0.9 | +2.2 | +2.4 | −0.6 | +0.5 | +1.1 | −0.5 | −0.3 | +2.5 | +0.1 |
| 2022 | −1.4 | −1.0 | −4.1 | +3.4 | ±0.0 | +0.2 | −0.3 | +1.1 | +1.0 | +0.3 | +0.8 | +1.7 |
| 2023 | +2.0 | −1.4 | +0.3 | +0.1 | −0.3 | −0.3 | +1.7 | +1.9 | +1.5 | +0.9 | +2.1 | +2.6 |
| 2024 | +1.3 | −0.4 | +0.4 | +2.5 | −0.4 | +3.9 | +1.4 | +0.7 | ±0.0 | −0.5 | −0.3 | +0.6 |
| 2025 | +2.1 | −2.2 | +1.5 | +1.5 | +0.9 | +0.7 | +0.9 | +1.1 | +0.2 | +0.2 | +3.8 | +0.2 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Syria
Lebanon
EgyptAbout these numbers
| Outline, area, depth, volume | HydroLAKES v1.0 (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|
| Water temperature and ice | LakeTEMP v1 (Korver et al. 2024), Landsat 8 2013–2021 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Air, rain, sun, wind | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 · public domain |
| Names and description | Wikidata (Q23883) · CC0 |
| Around the shore | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
