Lake · France
Hourtin-Carcans Lake
Lake in Gironde, New Aquitaine, France
- Area
- 57.7km²
- Max depth
- 10m
- Average depth
- 7.6m
- Elevation
- 12m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 49km
- Volume
- 0.440km³
Hourtin-Carcans Lake is a lake in France. It covers 57.7 km². On average it is 7.6 m deep, and 10 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 12 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Hourtin-Carcans Lake?
The water is warmest in July, around 24 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 7 °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 August and 10 °C in January. The driest month is July (39 mm of rain), the wettest November (107 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (144 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 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 7 | 97 | 14 | 2.4 | 21 |
| February | 8 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 69 | 12 | 4.3 | 21 |
| March | 11 | 12 | 13 | 8 | 72 | 12 | 5.5 | 20 |
| April | 15 | 17 | 15 | 10 | 60 | 12 | 7.1 | 17 |
| May | 19 | 20 | 18 | 13 | 65 | 12 | 7.8 | 17 |
| June | 22 | 23 | 21 | 16 | 55 | 10 | 8.8 | 15 |
| July | 24 | 24 | 23 | 18 | 39 | 9 | 9.0 | 16 |
| August | 23 | 24 | 23 | 18 | 45 | 9 | 8.3 | 15 |
| September | 21 | 22 | 22 | 16 | 50 | 11 | 7.4 | 16 |
| October | 17 | 19 | 18 | 14 | 78 | 14 | 4.8 | 18 |
| November | 12 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 107 | 16 | 3.2 | 21 |
| December | 8 | 10 | 11 | 8 | 95 | 16 | 2.5 | 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 2.4 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 445 km² of land.
- About 5.7 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Hourtin-Carcans Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 15beaches and swimming spots
Plage de Montaut, Plage de Maubuisson, Plage de Bombannes, Plage du Port, Plage de Piqueyrot and 10 more
- 10campsites
Camping La dune bleue, L'Acacia, Aire de camping-cars d’Hourtin-Port, Le Village Western, Les Ourmes and 5 more
- 3boat hire and water-sport clubs
Ski nautique club de Bombannes, UCPA
- 6marinas and slipways
Hourtin Port and 5 more
- —ferry piers
- 5viewpoints
Plage Nord
- 20hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Les Pins, Résidence-Club Odalys du Port, Résidence Odalys Le Petit Pont, Village vacances Les Dunes, Résidence Igesa and 15 more
- —fishing spots
- 33restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Hourtin3,485 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport (BOD), 47 km in a straight line.
Car hire at BOD airport (Bordeaux)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 | 10.4 | 12.8 | 15.1 | 17.8 | 21.4 | 23.1 | 23.3 | 21.8 | 18.5 | 14.1 | 11.3 |
| 2020 | +1.2 | +2.4 | +0.4 | +1.8 | +2.1 | −1.5 | +0.4 | +0.6 | +0.8 | −1.6 | +1.3 | +1.0 |
| 2021 | −1.0 | +2.1 | +0.2 | ±0.0 | −1.3 | +0.2 | −0.9 | −0.4 | +1.0 | +0.2 | −1.4 | +0.9 |
| 2022 | −0.5 | +1.9 | +1.1 | −0.1 | +3.0 | +1.5 | +3.2 | +3.0 | +0.8 | +2.9 | +2.1 | +0.5 |
| 2023 | +0.6 | +0.6 | +0.6 | +0.8 | +1.7 | +2.5 | +0.3 | +1.1 | +3.1 | +3.2 | +1.2 | +1.6 |
| 2024 | +0.8 | +2.4 | +1.1 | +0.4 | −0.6 | −0.5 | +0.1 | +0.8 | −1.5 | +0.5 | +2.1 | +0.4 |
| 2025 | +1.0 | +1.9 | +0.6 | +1.7 | +1.6 | +3.0 | +0.9 | +2.4 | ±0.0 | +1.5 | +1.4 | +1.4 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
AndorraAbout 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 (Q1535929) · 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.
