
Reservoir · France
Lac de Serre-Ponçon
Reservoir in France
- Area
- 17.6km²
- Max depth
- 90m
- Average depth
- 72m
- Elevation
- 757m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 51km
- Volume
- 1.3km³
Lac de Serre-Ponçon is a reservoir in France. It covers 17.6 km². On average it is 72 m deep, and 90 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 757 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lac de Serre-Ponçon?
The water is warmest in July, around 22 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 5 °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 1 °C in January. The driest month is July (39 mm of rain), the wettest November (90 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (194 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 | 1 | -7 | 47 | 8 | 5.0 | 10 |
| February | 5 | 6 | 2 | -7 | 43 | 7 | 5.7 | 10 |
| March | 7 | 8 | 6 | -4 | 52 | 8 | 6.4 | 10 |
| April | 10 | 12 | 11 | 0 | 57 | 10 | 6.9 | 10 |
| May | 15 | 17 | 15 | 4 | 74 | 12 | 7.6 | 10 |
| June | 20 | 21 | 20 | 9 | 54 | 10 | 9.8 | 9 |
| July | 22 | 23 | 24 | 11 | 39 | 8 | 10.8 | 10 |
| August | 22 | 23 | 23 | 10 | 42 | 8 | 9.8 | 9 |
| September | 20 | 21 | 19 | 6 | 53 | 9 | 8.1 | 9 |
| October | 16 | 18 | 13 | 2 | 74 | 10 | 6.0 | 9 |
| November | 12 | 14 | 6 | -2 | 90 | 11 | 4.4 | 9 |
| December | 8 | 10 | 2 | -6 | 62 | 9 | 4.5 | 9 |
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 9 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 3,564 km² of land.
- About 52 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 3.4 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lac de Serre-Ponçon
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 29beaches and swimming spots
Savin'Plage, Plage des Tremouilles, Bois Vieux, Port Saint-Pierre, Le Forreston and 24 more
- 22campsites
La Presqu’île, Les Chappas, La Cle des Champs, La Pinede, Aire camping car du Barnafret and 17 more
- 5boat hire and water-sport clubs
Spot de Boscodon, Sorties Voilier et Trimaran, La Petite Mer
- 27marinas and slipways
Port Saint-Florent, Base nautique de Chanteloube and 25 more
- 2ferry piers
- 37viewpoints
Le Château, Belvédère de Pierre-Arnoux, Belvédère des Curattes, Belvédère de Sauze du Lac, Plage du bois vieux and 32 more
- 15hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Les Flots Bleus, Les Horizons du Lac, Les Chaumettes, Les Sources, Les Rodhos and 10 more
- —fishing spots
- 23restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Cuneo International Airport (CUF), 105 km in a straight line.
Car hire at CEQ airport (Cannes)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 | 1.1 | 2.3 | 6.3 | 10.8 | 14.9 | 20.1 | 23.5 | 23.3 | 18.6 | 13.4 | 6.5 | 2.0 |
| 2020 | +1.8 | +2.5 | +0.2 | +1.6 | +1.2 | −2.7 | +0.1 | +0.8 | ±0.0 | −2.9 | +2.5 | −0.9 |
| 2021 | −2.1 | +2.7 | +0.8 | −1.8 | −2.4 | −0.1 | −0.4 | +0.1 | +0.8 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +1.1 |
| 2022 | +3.2 | +2.8 | +1.5 | +1.4 | +4.0 | +4.8 | +4.9 | +1.8 | −0.6 | +3.3 | +1.6 | +1.3 |
| 2023 | +1.3 | +4.0 | +2.4 | −0.1 | +0.5 | +0.4 | +2.3 | +2.2 | +3.7 | +3.1 | −0.3 | +2.2 |
| 2024 | +2.4 | +4.6 | +1.4 | +0.2 | −1.0 | −0.7 | +2.1 | +3.6 | −1.6 | +0.7 | +1.8 | +1.8 |
| 2025 | +2.2 | +3.1 | +1.7 | +2.2 | +1.7 | +5.2 | +1.1 | +2.3 | +0.5 | +0.3 | +0.6 | +2.8 |
+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 (Q1799634) · 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.

