Lake · Germany
Königssee
Lake in Schönau am Königsee, Bavaria, Germany
- Area
- 4.8km²
- Max depth
- 190m
- Average depth
- 45m
- Elevation
- 604m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 19km
- Volume
- 0.218km³
Königssee is a lake in Germany. It covers 4.8 km². On average it is 45 m deep, and 190 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 604 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Königssee?
The water is warmest in July, around 21 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 1 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more in July: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 20 °C on average in July and -1 °C in January. The driest month is February (72 mm of rain), the wettest August (184 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (120 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 | 1 | 2 | -1 | -9 | 90 | 13 | 3.0 | 7 |
| February | 2 | 3 | 0 | -8 | 72 | 13 | 4.5 | 7 |
| March | 5 | 7 | 5 | -4 | 89 | 16 | 5.2 | 6 |
| April | 10 | 12 | 11 | 0 | 85 | 15 | 5.7 | 6 |
| May | 15 | 18 | 15 | 4 | 151 | 19 | 5.5 | 6 |
| June | 20 | 21 | 19 | 9 | 176 | 21 | 6.4 | 5 |
| July | 21 | 22 | 20 | 10 | 184 | 22 | 7.0 | 5 |
| August | 20 | 21 | 20 | 10 | 184 | 19 | 6.5 | 5 |
| September | 16 | 18 | 15 | 6 | 135 | 15 | 5.1 | 5 |
| October | 11 | 14 | 11 | 2 | 102 | 14 | 4.5 | 6 |
| November | 7 | 9 | 5 | -3 | 76 | 13 | 2.8 | 6 |
| December | 3 | 5 | 0 | -7 | 82 | 14 | 2.4 | 7 |
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 24 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 132 km² of land.
- About 3.5 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Königssee
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 8beaches and swimming spots
- 3campsites
Grafenlehen, Camping Mühlleiten, Wohnmobilstellplatz Großparkplatz Königssee
- 1boat hire and water-sport clubs
Ruderbootverleih
- —marinas and slipways
- 3ferry piers
Salet, Königssee Seelände, St. Bartholomä
- 22viewpoints
Feuerpalfen, Archenkanzel, Malerwinkel, Halsköpfl, Weg zum Obersee and 17 more
- 24hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Königssee, Seehaus, Haus Rosenblüte, Alpenpension Bergidyll, Broslerlehen and 19 more
- —fishing spots
- 16restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Schönau am Königssee5,315 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Salzburg Airport (SZG), 27 km in a straight line.
Car hire at SZG airport (Salzburg)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 | -0.8 | 0.2 | 4.6 | 10.6 | 14.9 | 18.7 | 20.4 | 20.2 | 15.3 | 11.4 | 5.4 | 0.5 |
| 2020 | +2.4 | +3.1 | +0.2 | +2.4 | −1.4 | −1.4 | −0.4 | +0.9 | +1.2 | −2.3 | +2.3 | +0.8 |
| 2021 | −1.4 | +3.9 | −0.9 | −3.5 | −3.1 | +2.8 | +1.1 | −1.9 | +2.4 | −0.5 | −0.3 | −0.5 |
| 2022 | +0.6 | +1.1 | +2.6 | −1.1 | +2.2 | +3.2 | +1.4 | +0.7 | −1.0 | +4.5 | +0.8 | +1.2 |
| 2023 | +1.2 | +1.2 | +2.2 | −3.6 | −0.3 | +1.2 | +1.3 | +1.1 | +5.1 | +3.6 | −1.9 | +1.0 |
| 2024 | +1.3 | +5.4 | +3.9 | +1.2 | +1.2 | +0.8 | +2.3 | +3.4 | +0.2 | +2.6 | +1.0 | +0.5 |
| 2025 | +2.7 | +4.0 | +3.1 | +2.0 | −1.4 | +4.0 | −0.7 | +0.8 | +2.2 | −1.8 | −0.3 | +2.7 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
AustriaAbout 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 (Q156715) · 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.
