Lagoon · France
Étang de Berre
French lagoon
- Area
- 159km²
- Max depth
- 9m
- Average depth
- 23m
- Elevation
- 0m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 78km
- Volume
- 3.7km³
Étang de Berre is a lagoon in France. It covers 159 km². On average it is 23 m deep, and 9 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 0 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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.
The water
How warm is Étang de Berre?
The water is warmest in July, around 25 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 6 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from June to September: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 29 °C on average in July and 11 °C in January. The driest month is July (16 mm of rain), the wettest November (87 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (100 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 | 6 | 7 | 11 | 4 | 45 | 7 | 4.4 | 22 |
| February | 7 | 8 | 11 | 4 | 35 | 5 | 5.9 | 23 |
| March | 10 | 12 | 15 | 7 | 38 | 6 | 7.3 | 22 |
| April | 14 | 16 | 18 | 10 | 47 | 8 | 8.5 | 21 |
| May | 19 | 21 | 22 | 13 | 43 | 7 | 9.8 | 20 |
| June | 23 | 24 | 27 | 18 | 28 | 5 | 11.8 | 18 |
| July | 25 | 25 | 29 | 20 | 16 | 3 | 12.3 | 19 |
| August | 24 | 25 | 29 | 20 | 21 | 4 | 10.9 | 18 |
| September | 21 | 23 | 25 | 16 | 54 | 7 | 8.7 | 19 |
| October | 17 | 19 | 20 | 13 | 73 | 9 | 6.1 | 21 |
| November | 12 | 14 | 15 | 9 | 87 | 9 | 4.7 | 23 |
| December | 8 | 10 | 11 | 5 | 45 | 7 | 4.2 | 22 |
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 7.8 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 1,569 km² of land.
- About 15 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Étang de Berre
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 8beaches and swimming spots
Plage de Ferrières, Plage de la Romaniquette, Plage des Marettes, Plage Des Cabassons, Plage de Champigny and 3 more
- 7campsites
Camping Félix de la Bastide, Camping Le Canet, Camping Marina Plage, Camping Le Jaï, Istres Aire de stationnement pour campings-cars and 2 more
- 10boat hire and water-sport clubs
Club Nautique d'Istres, Martigues Aviron Club, Centre Nautique Martigues, Base nautique de Tholon, Club Nautique Berrois and 5 more
- 16marinas and slipways
Port à sec, Port de la Mède, Anse du Castellan, Les Heures Claires, Port Albert Samson and 11 more
- 4ferry piers
Navette Maritime - Hôtel de Ville., Navette Maritime - Arrêt Lucien Dégut, Navette Maritime - Arrêt Médiathèque, Navette Maritime - Arrêt Général Leclerc
- 38viewpoints
Miroir aux Oiseaux, Pont levant, Plateau de Figuerolles, Anse de Figuerolles, Pins and 33 more
- 27hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Campanile, Hôtel Ibis, Saint-Roch, Ibis Marseille Provence Aéroport, Ibis Budget Marseille Aéroport and 22 more
- —fishing spots
- 141restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Martigues45,749 people
- Istres44,373 people
- Vitrolles38,591 people
- Marignane35,873 people
- Berre-l'Étang14,062 people
- Rognac12,254 people
- Châteauneuf-les-Martigues11,496 people
- Saint-Chamas6,901 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Marseille Provence Airport (MRS), 9 km in a straight line.
Car hire at MRS airport (Marignane, Bouches-du-Rhône)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 | 10.6 | 11.2 | 14.6 | 18.0 | 21.9 | 26.6 | 29.4 | 29.0 | 24.8 | 20.5 | 15.1 | 11.4 |
| 2020 | +1.6 | +2.6 | +0.2 | +0.6 | +1.3 | −1.6 | +0.7 | +0.8 | +0.7 | −2.0 | +1.9 | −0.1 |
| 2021 | −1.2 | +2.4 | +0.4 | −1.1 | −1.6 | +1.3 | −0.3 | −0.2 | +1.5 | ±0.0 | −0.4 | +0.7 |
| 2022 | +0.5 | +2.5 | +1.0 | +0.7 | +3.2 | +3.6 | +3.4 | +2.3 | +0.8 | +2.9 | +2.1 | +2.0 |
| 2023 | +0.5 | +1.7 | +1.4 | +1.0 | +0.9 | +1.5 | +1.9 | +0.9 | +2.6 | +2.9 | +0.4 | +1.6 |
| 2024 | +1.5 | +3.5 | +1.3 | ±0.0 | −0.1 | −0.5 | +1.5 | +3.0 | −0.4 | +1.4 | +2.2 | +0.9 |
| 2025 | +2.1 | +2.9 | +1.2 | +1.5 | +1.8 | +4.5 | +1.5 | +2.3 | +0.4 | +1.2 | +0.5 | +2.6 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
France18.7 km² · 92 km away24°maxÉtang de ThauFrance68.6 km² · 119 km away25°maxLac de Serre-PonçonFrance17.6 km² · 150 km away22°maxLac du BourgetFrance42.6 km² · 255 km away24°maxLac d'AiguebeletteFrance5.2 km² · 240 km away26°maxLake of Banyoles
Spain1.0 km² · 241 km away28°maxAbout 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 (Q288912) · 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.
