Lake · Switzerland
Greifensee
Lake in the district of Uster in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland
- Area
- 7.8km²
- Max depth
- 34m
- Average depth
- 6.5m
- Elevation
- 433m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 16km
- Volume
- 0.050km³
Greifensee is a lake in Switzerland. It covers 7.8 km². On average it is 6.5 m deep, and 34 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 433 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Greifensee?
The water is warmest in July, around 24 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 2 °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 23 °C on average in July and 2 °C in January. The driest month is February (74 mm of rain), the wettest August (146 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (119 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 | 2 | 3 | 2 | -4 | 94 | 13 | 2.5 | 12 |
| February | 4 | 5 | 4 | -4 | 74 | 12 | 3.7 | 12 |
| March | 7 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 92 | 14 | 5.3 | 13 |
| April | 12 | 15 | 14 | 4 | 91 | 14 | 6.5 | 11 |
| May | 17 | 20 | 18 | 8 | 141 | 18 | 6.7 | 11 |
| June | 22 | 24 | 22 | 13 | 139 | 18 | 8.0 | 10 |
| July | 24 | 25 | 23 | 14 | 144 | 17 | 8.1 | 10 |
| August | 24 | 25 | 23 | 14 | 146 | 16 | 7.3 | 9 |
| September | 20 | 22 | 18 | 10 | 103 | 14 | 6.0 | 9 |
| October | 15 | 18 | 14 | 6 | 100 | 13 | 4.2 | 10 |
| November | 9 | 12 | 8 | 1 | 87 | 13 | 2.4 | 10 |
| December | 4 | 6 | 3 | -3 | 102 | 15 | 2.0 | 11 |
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 3 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 195 km² of land.
- About 6.1 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Greifensee
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 12beaches and swimming spots
Badi Egg, Strandbad Maur and 10 more
- 3campsites
Maurholz, Naturfreunde Zeltplatz, Rausenbach
- 8boat hire and water-sport clubs
Strandbad Niederuster, Strandbad Maur, Hafen, Bad Egg, SCvG Clublokal and 3 more
- 6marinas and slipways
Marina Uster, Marina Maur and 4 more
- 5ferry piers
Fällanden (See), Mönchaltorf (See), Greifensee (See), Uster (See), Maur (See)
- 8viewpoints
Neubühl (Stopperhügel), Alpen Panorama mitten im See and 6 more
- 4hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Motel Fällanden, Jugendherberge Fällanden, Pension Kreuzstrasse, Schwanen
- 1fishing spots
- 51restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Uster34,715 people
- Uster / Kirch-Uster10,428 people
- Egg8,829 people
- Hegnau7,961 people
- Uster / Ober-Uster5,100 people
- Greifensee5,032 people
- Schwerzenbach4,180 people
- Uster / Nieder-Uster4,128 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Zürich Airport (ZRH), 15 km in a straight line.
Car hire at ZRH airport (Zurich)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 | 2.3 | 3.7 | 8.7 | 13.8 | 17.7 | 21.6 | 23.2 | 22.6 | 18.5 | 14.0 | 7.7 | 3.1 |
| 2020 | +2.3 | +4.2 | +0.2 | +3.0 | +0.2 | −1.7 | +0.5 | +0.7 | +1.4 | −1.2 | +1.4 | −0.2 |
| 2021 | −1.7 | +3.2 | ±0.0 | −2.4 | −3.3 | +1.5 | −1.2 | −1.6 | +1.7 | −0.4 | −2.2 | ±0.0 |
| 2022 | +0.9 | +2.4 | +2.2 | −0.9 | +2.0 | +2.5 | +1.8 | +1.6 | −0.6 | +4.3 | +2.0 | +1.0 |
| 2023 | +1.9 | +2.4 | +1.7 | −2.1 | ±0.0 | +2.5 | +1.1 | +1.3 | +4.5 | +3.5 | +0.1 | +2.2 |
| 2024 | +1.6 | +5.1 | +2.6 | ±0.0 | −0.1 | ±0.0 | +1.1 | +2.4 | ±0.0 | +1.8 | +0.2 | +0.5 |
| 2025 | +1.4 | +1.8 | +2.0 | +1.6 | ±0.0 | +3.0 | −0.6 | +1.2 | +0.1 | −0.9 | −0.2 | +2.0 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
About 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 (Q14497) · 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.
