
Lake · France
Lac du Bourget
Lake in France
- Area
- 42.6km²
- Max depth
- 145m
- Average depth
- 69m
- Elevation
- 230m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 43km
- Volume
- 2.9km³
Lac du Bourget is a lake in France. It covers 42.6 km². On average it is 69 m deep, and 145 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 230 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The water
How warm is Lac du Bourget?
The water is warmest in July, around 24 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 5 °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 25 °C on average in July and 4 °C in January. The driest month is February (62 mm of rain), the wettest November (97 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 | 5 | 6 | 4 | -3 | 79 | 12 | 2.6 | 8 |
| February | 6 | 6 | 6 | -2 | 62 | 10 | 4.0 | 9 |
| March | 8 | 10 | 10 | 1 | 74 | 11 | 5.8 | 9 |
| April | 12 | 14 | 15 | 4 | 69 | 12 | 6.9 | 9 |
| May | 16 | 19 | 18 | 8 | 97 | 14 | 7.4 | 9 |
| June | 21 | 23 | 23 | 12 | 77 | 13 | 9.4 | 8 |
| July | 24 | 25 | 25 | 14 | 72 | 12 | 9.8 | 8 |
| August | 24 | 25 | 25 | 14 | 76 | 10 | 8.7 | 7 |
| September | 21 | 23 | 20 | 10 | 70 | 10 | 7.0 | 7 |
| October | 16 | 19 | 16 | 6 | 89 | 12 | 4.7 | 8 |
| November | 11 | 13 | 9 | 2 | 97 | 13 | 2.9 | 8 |
| December | 7 | 9 | 5 | -2 | 86 | 12 | 2.3 | 8 |
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 7.9 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 594 km² of land.
- About 12 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Lac du Bourget
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 32beaches and swimming spots
plage des Meuniers, Plage de Charpignat, Naturistes, Plage aux Dames, Plage d'Aix les Bains and 27 more
- 10campsites
Camping de l'Île aux Cygnes, Camping du Pêcheur, Camping International du Sierroz, L'Île aux Cygnes, Aire de camping-car d'Aix-les-Bains and 5 more
- 15boat hire and water-sport clubs
Aix'n Ride, Tombant de Chindrieu/Châtillon, Pierre à Bise, Site de plongée de Challière, Le Cap Vert and 10 more
- 33marinas and slipways
Mise à l'eau, Port de Terre Nue, Port de Brison Station, Port des Grèbes, Port des Quatre Chemins and 28 more
- 3ferry piers
Compagnie des Bateaux du Lac du Bourget
- 80viewpoints
Grotte des Fées, Belvédère de la Chambotte, Belvédère de la Grande Molière, Sentier Botanique, Belvédère des Tours de César and 75 more
- 37hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Azuréa, Adelphia, Hôtel Savoy, Hôtel Bristol, La Maison des Pêcheurs and 32 more
- —fishing spots
- 131restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Aix-les-Bains27,651 people
- Le Bourget-du-Lac4,263 people
- Grésy-sur-Aix3,380 people
- Tresserve3,303 people
- Châtillon2,880 people
- Drumettaz2,141 people
- Brison-Saint-Innocent2,023 people
- Viviers-du-Lac1,622 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Chambéry Aix les Bains airport (CMF), 4 km in a straight line.
Car hire at GNB airport (Grenoble)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Photos
Seen by visitors


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 | 4.3 | 5.8 | 10.5 | 14.9 | 18.3 | 22.7 | 24.9 | 24.6 | 20.4 | 16.0 | 9.4 | 5.0 |
| 2020 | +2.4 | +4.0 | +1.1 | +2.7 | +1.5 | −2.0 | +0.8 | +1.2 | +1.5 | −2.1 | +2.1 | +0.7 |
| 2021 | −2.3 | +4.0 | +0.3 | −1.9 | −2.4 | +0.6 | −1.6 | −1.6 | +1.5 | −0.6 | −2.2 | −0.5 |
| 2022 | +0.2 | +2.3 | +2.3 | −0.4 | +3.0 | +3.0 | +3.4 | +3.9 | +0.5 | +4.7 | +2.2 | +1.8 |
| 2023 | +0.7 | +2.7 | +1.7 | −1.2 | ±0.0 | +1.5 | +1.7 | +3.2 | +5.2 | +4.1 | +0.3 | +2.0 |
| 2024 | +1.7 | +4.4 | +2.0 | −0.5 | −0.7 | −0.4 | +0.9 | +2.0 | −1.2 | +1.7 | +1.8 | +0.4 |
| 2025 | +2.2 | +2.5 | +1.4 | +1.5 | +0.6 | +3.7 | −0.3 | +1.9 | −0.6 | −1.0 | +0.4 | +2.6 |
+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 (Q23426) · 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.