Lagoon · France
Étang de Thau
French lagoon
- Area
- 68.6km²
- Max depth
- 32m
- Average depth
- 3.7m
- Elevation
- -2m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 69km
- Volume
- 0.255km³
Étang de Thau is a lagoon in France. It covers 68.6 km². On average it is 3.7 m deep, and 32 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 2 m below sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Étang de Thau?
The water is warmest in August, 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 30 °C on average in July and 10 °C in January. The driest month is July (20 mm of rain), the wettest October (82 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (104 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 | 10 | 4 | 52 | 8 | 3.8 | 18 |
| February | 8 | 9 | 11 | 4 | 39 | 6 | 5.2 | 19 |
| March | 10 | 12 | 14 | 6 | 48 | 7 | 6.3 | 18 |
| April | 14 | 16 | 18 | 9 | 59 | 9 | 7.3 | 17 |
| May | 18 | 20 | 22 | 12 | 49 | 8 | 8.6 | 17 |
| June | 22 | 24 | 27 | 17 | 30 | 6 | 10.6 | 15 |
| July | 25 | 25 | 30 | 19 | 20 | 4 | 11.1 | 15 |
| August | 25 | 25 | 29 | 19 | 25 | 6 | 9.7 | 14 |
| September | 22 | 24 | 25 | 16 | 51 | 7 | 7.8 | 15 |
| October | 17 | 20 | 20 | 12 | 82 | 10 | 5.0 | 17 |
| November | 12 | 14 | 15 | 8 | 73 | 10 | 4.1 | 19 |
| December | 8 | 10 | 11 | 5 | 46 | 8 | 3.6 | 18 |
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 15 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 367 km² of land.
- About 6.4 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Étang de Thau
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 14beaches and swimming spots
Plage Robinson - Est, Plage Jalabert, Plage de la Fontaine, Plage de la Plagette, Plage du Thalassa and 9 more
- 33campsites
Camping municipal Pech d'Ay, Le Castellas, Camping le Robinson, Emplacement pour camping-car des 3 Digues, Aire de camping-cars Aire des Bains and 28 more
- 14boat hire and water-sport clubs
Vents Favorables, Yacht Club de Mèze, Kithau, Triderland - Kitesurf School & Cruise, Aqua Turtle and 9 more
- 30marinas and slipways
Mise à l'eau, Port de Mèze, Port de Marseillan-Ville, Port du Tabarka, Port de Marseillan-Plage and 25 more
- 2ferry piers
- 7viewpoints
Panoramique du Mont Saint-Clair, Pierres Blanches, Point de vue, Aire de Loupian Sud and 3 more
- 49hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Hôtel Le Richmont, Bienvenue, Hôtel de Paris, Hôtel Les Dunes, Hotel de la Plage and 44 more
- —fishing spots
- 261restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Sète40,736 people
- Mèze8,557 people
- Marseillan6,981 people
- Balaruc-les-Bains6,387 people
- Poussan4,572 people
- Balaruc-le-Vieux2,016 people
- Loupian1,664 people
- Bouzigues1,352 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Béziers Vias airport (BZR), 24 km in a straight line.
Car hire at BZR airport (Béziers)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 | 10.4 | 11.2 | 14.4 | 17.7 | 21.6 | 26.7 | 29.6 | 29.2 | 24.9 | 20.2 | 14.8 | 11.1 |
| 2020 | +1.4 | +2.9 | +0.3 | +0.2 | +1.7 | −1.7 | +0.6 | +0.7 | +0.1 | −1.9 | +1.5 | −0.1 |
| 2021 | −1.2 | +2.0 | +0.5 | −0.8 | −0.9 | +1.2 | −0.2 | +0.1 | +0.7 | ±0.0 | −1.0 | +0.6 |
| 2022 | +0.4 | +2.2 | +0.1 | +0.6 | +3.4 | +3.0 | +3.9 | +2.7 | +0.5 | +2.3 | +2.1 | +1.7 |
| 2023 | +0.4 | +1.4 | +1.5 | +1.5 | +1.1 | +1.2 | +1.4 | +1.1 | +1.9 | +3.1 | +1.2 | +1.9 |
| 2024 | +1.6 | +3.9 | +1.5 | +0.4 | −0.1 | −0.5 | +1.0 | +2.9 | −0.7 | +1.0 | +1.9 | +0.8 |
| 2025 | +1.9 | +2.0 | +0.6 | +1.5 | +2.5 | +4.9 | +1.9 | +2.5 | +0.5 | +1.5 | +0.8 | +2.3 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
France159 km² · 119 km away25°maxLake of Banyoles
Spain1.0 km² · 159 km away28°maxEstanys de Juclar
Andorra0.1 km² · 179 km away17°maxLake of Sainte-CroixFrance18.7 km² · 207 km away24°maxLac de Serre-PonçonFrance17.6 km² · 244 km away22°maxLac du BourgetFrance42.6 km² · 308 km away24°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 (Q288968) · 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.
