Crater lake · Germany
Laacher See
Volcanic crater lake in Germany
- Area
- 3.2km²
- Max depth
- 51m
- Average depth
- 18m
- Elevation
- 274m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 7.0km
- Volume
- 0.057km³
Laacher See is a crater lake in Germany. It covers 3.2 km². On average it is 18 m deep, and 51 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 274 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Laacher See?
The water is warmest in July, around 22 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 3 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from July to August: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 24 °C on average in July and 3 °C in January. The driest month is April (46 mm of rain), the wettest August (76 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (78 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 | 3 | 3 | 3 | -2 | 70 | 14 | 1.1 | 18 |
| February | 3 | 4 | 4 | -2 | 57 | 12 | 2.4 | 18 |
| March | 6 | 7 | 9 | 0 | 57 | 13 | 4.1 | 17 |
| April | 10 | 12 | 14 | 3 | 46 | 11 | 6.2 | 14 |
| May | 15 | 17 | 18 | 8 | 71 | 13 | 6.5 | 14 |
| June | 20 | 21 | 22 | 11 | 70 | 13 | 7.0 | 13 |
| July | 22 | 22 | 24 | 13 | 75 | 15 | 6.9 | 13 |
| August | 22 | 22 | 24 | 13 | 76 | 12 | 6.1 | 13 |
| September | 18 | 20 | 20 | 9 | 58 | 11 | 5.3 | 13 |
| October | 13 | 16 | 14 | 5 | 60 | 12 | 3.2 | 15 |
| November | 8 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 69 | 14 | 1.3 | 16 |
| December | 4 | 6 | 4 | -1 | 76 | 16 | 0.7 | 17 |
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 22 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 11 km² of land.
- About 0.1 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Laacher See
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 1beaches and swimming spots
- 3campsites
Camping Laacher See, Siesta Campingplatz, Zeltwiese Laacherseehaus
- 1boat hire and water-sport clubs
Bootsverleih Laacher See / Maria Laach
- 2marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 8viewpoints
Teufelskanzel, Aussichtspunkt Laacher See, Aussichtspunkt auf Laacher See (wenn Bäume ohne Laub), Lydia-Turm and 4 more
- 3hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Seehotel Maria Laach, Naturfreundehaus Laacherseehaus
- —fishing spots
- 4restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Nickenich3,582 people
- Bell1,534 people
- Wassenach1,174 people
- Wehr1,152 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN), 51 km in a straight line.
Car hire at CGN airport (Köln)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 | 2.8 | 4.1 | 8.6 | 14.0 | 17.9 | 22.0 | 24.5 | 24.1 | 19.6 | 13.7 | 7.6 | 3.6 |
| 2020 | +2.4 | +3.5 | +0.7 | +2.7 | −0.2 | +0.1 | +0.3 | +2.7 | +2.4 | −0.5 | +1.3 | +0.6 |
| 2021 | −0.8 | +1.3 | +0.3 | −3.5 | −3.4 | +1.7 | −2.3 | −2.9 | +1.7 | +0.4 | −0.8 | +1.2 |
| 2022 | +1.5 | +3.2 | +1.8 | −1.2 | +2.3 | +3.0 | +2.8 | +5.0 | −0.3 | +3.2 | +1.9 | +0.3 |
| 2023 | +2.2 | +2.2 | +0.4 | −2.1 | +0.3 | +2.7 | +0.3 | −1.1 | +4.3 | +2.6 | +0.3 | +2.1 |
| 2024 | +0.2 | +4.8 | +2.4 | −0.5 | +1.1 | −1.2 | −1.1 | +1.7 | +0.8 | +1.0 | +0.1 | +0.8 |
| 2025 | +0.6 | +0.2 | +2.7 | +1.9 | +1.1 | +3.0 | +0.7 | +2.0 | ±0.0 | −0.2 | +0.4 | +1.7 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Belgium
LuxembourgAbout 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 (Q549267) · 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.
