Lake · Hungary
Lake Balaton
Freshwater lake in Hungary
- Area
- 577km²
- Max depth
- 12m
- Average depth
- 3.3m
- Elevation
- 100m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 204km
- Volume
- 1.9km³
Lake Balaton is a lake in Hungary. It covers 577 km². On average it is 3.3 m deep, and 12 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 100 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Balaton?
The water is warmest in July, around 25 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from June to August: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 29 °C on average in July and 2 °C in January. The driest month is April (34 mm of rain), the wettest June (66 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (143 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 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -4 | 37 | 8 | 1.8 | 15 |
| February | 2 | 4 | 4 | -3 | 41 | 7 | 3.3 | 16 |
| March | 6 | 9 | 10 | 0 | 41 | 8 | 5.0 | 16 |
| April | 12 | 16 | 17 | 6 | 34 | 8 | 7.1 | 15 |
| May | 18 | 21 | 22 | 11 | 65 | 12 | 7.8 | 14 |
| June | 23 | 24 | 26 | 15 | 66 | 11 | 8.4 | 13 |
| July | 25 | 25 | 29 | 17 | 61 | 11 | 8.8 | 13 |
| August | 23 | 24 | 28 | 17 | 63 | 10 | 8.3 | 12 |
| September | 19 | 22 | 22 | 11 | 62 | 9 | 6.1 | 13 |
| October | 14 | 17 | 16 | 6 | 52 | 8 | 4.4 | 14 |
| November | 8 | 10 | 9 | 2 | 44 | 9 | 2.2 | 14 |
| December | 3 | 5 | 3 | -3 | 42 | 9 | 1.1 | 14 |
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 2.8 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 5,747 km² of land.
- About 21 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Balaton
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 194beaches and swimming spots
Szabadstrand, Pici szabadstrand, Városi szabadstrand, Napozó, Szigetfürdő and 189 more
- 58campsites
Tündérkert Kemping, Eldorádó Kemping, Campsite, Szántódi kemping, Fonyódligeti Gyermektábor, Caravan Camping and 53 more
- 35boat hire and water-sport clubs
Vízisí, Szörf és vitorlás iskola, Vízibicikli, yacht-sail.hu, VitorlásPONT and 30 more
- 223marinas and slipways
Koloska Marina, Szigliget id. Szívós István Vitorláskikötő, Hajóállomás, Tihany Marina / The Sail, Kishajó-kikötő and 218 more
- 18ferry piers
Szántódrév, Balatonföldvár, Badacsony, Fonyód, Balatonboglár and 13 more
- 103viewpoints
Egry József kilátóhely, Levendulás, Szarkádi-kilátás, Óvári kilátó, Bél Mátyás kilátó and 98 more
- 892hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Csillag Vendégház, Margaréta étterem, Panzió, Fortuna vendégház, Ezüst Nyár and 887 more
- 34fishing spots
Hotel Lido stég and 33 more
- 591restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Siófok23,028 people
- Keszthely19,652 people
- Balatonfüred13,138 people
- Balatonalmádi8,364 people
- Balatonboglár5,964 people
- Fonyód5,199 people
- Balatonlelle4,910 people
- Balatonkenese3,326 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Hévíz–Balaton Airport (SOB), 76 km in a straight line.
Car hire at BUD airport (Budapest)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 | 1.8 | 4.5 | 10.3 | 16.8 | 21.6 | 26.1 | 28.8 | 28.4 | 22.3 | 16.1 | 9.0 | 2.8 |
| 2020 | +0.3 | +4.9 | +1.1 | +1.1 | −2.1 | −0.8 | −0.3 | +0.6 | +2.2 | −0.7 | −1.3 | +1.7 |
| 2021 | +1.8 | +1.6 | −0.5 | −3.6 | −2.7 | +3.4 | +2.3 | −0.5 | +2.1 | −0.8 | −0.1 | −0.2 |
| 2022 | +2.0 | +3.9 | +0.5 | −1.9 | +2.9 | +3.1 | +2.0 | +2.6 | −0.7 | +2.4 | +0.6 | +1.3 |
| 2023 | +4.2 | +1.9 | +1.9 | −2.8 | −1.1 | −0.6 | +0.9 | +0.4 | +4.5 | +4.7 | +1.1 | +1.8 |
| 2024 | +2.7 | +7.2 | +3.8 | +1.8 | +2.2 | +2.3 | +4.2 | +5.3 | +2.2 | +1.6 | −0.6 | +1.8 |
| 2025 | +3.7 | +0.3 | +3.7 | +2.5 | −0.8 | +5.2 | +1.7 | +2.6 | +2.9 | +0.3 | +0.7 | +1.6 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
CroatiaAbout 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 (Q6383) · 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.
