Lake · Australia
Lake Alexandrina
Estuarine lagoon in South Australia, forming part of the Murray River mouth
- Area
- 863km²
- Average depth
- 0.6m
- Elevation
- 0m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 404km
- Volume
- 0.480km³
Lake Alexandrina is a lake in Australia. It covers 863 km². On average it is 0.6 m deep. Its surface lies 0 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Alexandrina?
The water is warmest in January, around 23 °C at the surface, and coldest in July, around 10 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from December to February: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 29 °C on average in January and 14 °C in July. The driest month is February (16 mm of rain), the wettest July (50 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 | 23 | 23 | 29 | 16 | 18 | 3 | 11.4 | 20 |
| February | 22 | 22 | 28 | 15 | 16 | 3 | 10.3 | 20 |
| March | 20 | 21 | 26 | 14 | 29 | 4 | 9.2 | 18 |
| April | 17 | 18 | 22 | 12 | 30 | 6 | 7.4 | 16 |
| May | 13 | 15 | 18 | 10 | 45 | 10 | 5.8 | 16 |
| June | 11 | 12 | 15 | 7 | 48 | 11 | 5.5 | 17 |
| July | 10 | 10 | 14 | 7 | 50 | 11 | 5.6 | 18 |
| August | 11 | 12 | 15 | 7 | 45 | 11 | 6.7 | 19 |
| September | 14 | 15 | 18 | 8 | 42 | 9 | 7.8 | 19 |
| October | 17 | 18 | 22 | 10 | 23 | 6 | 9.1 | 19 |
| November | 20 | 21 | 25 | 12 | 22 | 5 | 10.1 | 20 |
| December | 22 | 22 | 27 | 14 | 25 | 4 | 10.8 | 20 |
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 21 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 2,096 km² of land.
- About 0.7 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 3.9 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Alexandrina
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 6beaches and swimming spots
Goolwa Beach and 5 more
- 16campsites
Briston-Smith Park, Clayton Bay Beach Rest Area, Currency Creek Lions Park, Lake Albert Foreshore, Meningie Lions Jubilee Park and 11 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 15marinas and slipways
Hindmarsh Island Marina, Goolwa Regatta Yacht Club Marina, Clayton Bay Boat Club and 12 more
- 3ferry piers
Wellington West, Narrung, Poltalloch
- 4viewpoints
Lake Alexandria
- 8hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Corio Hotel, Goolwa Central Motel, Karinga Park Homestead, Meningie's Waterfront Motel, Narnu Farm and 3 more
- —fishing spots
- 10restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Goolwa2,225 people
- Goolwa Beach1,975 people
- Hindmarsh Island1,341 people
- Meningie1,083 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Adelaide International Airport (ADL), 81 km in a straight line.
Car hire at ADL airport (Adelaide)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 | 28.9 | 27.9 | 25.8 | 22.3 | 18.0 | 15.0 | 14.3 | 15.4 | 18.2 | 21.7 | 25.1 | 26.9 |
| 2020 | −0.5 | −1.7 | −1.7 | −2.2 | −1.8 | −0.7 | −0.1 | −1.0 | +0.5 | −1.0 | +2.7 | −1.6 |
| 2021 | −0.9 | −1.6 | −0.8 | ±0.0 | +0.3 | +0.5 | −0.3 | +0.5 | +0.1 | −1.5 | −2.2 | −0.3 |
| 2022 | +1.3 | −1.3 | +0.3 | +0.4 | −0.2 | −0.5 | −0.3 | ±0.0 | −1.7 | −1.5 | −3.7 | −0.7 |
| 2023 | −0.6 | −0.2 | −1.2 | −0.6 | −0.6 | +0.9 | +0.6 | +1.5 | +3.6 | −0.2 | −1.0 | −0.9 |
| 2024 | −0.7 | +1.1 | +2.4 | −2.4 | +1.2 | −0.3 | +0.3 | +2.9 | +0.7 | +1.5 | +0.7 | +1.0 |
| 2025 | +1.1 | +1.9 | +3.5 | +1.8 | +1.5 | +0.2 | −0.3 | +0.6 | +0.4 | +0.6 | −3.1 | +0.5 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
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 (Q1794394) · 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.
