Crater lake · Italy
Lake Bolsena
Crater lake in Italy
- Area
- 113km²
- Max depth
- 151m
- Average depth
- 18m
- Elevation
- 304m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 47km
- Volume
- 2.1km³
Lake Bolsena is a crater lake in Italy. It covers 113 km². On average it is 18 m deep, and 151 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 304 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 Lake Bolsena?
The water is warmest in August, around 25 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 8 °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 31 °C on average in August and 9 °C in January. The driest month is July (28 mm of rain), the wettest November (110 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (192 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 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 2 | 63 | 8 | 3.7 | 15 |
| February | 8 | 9 | 10 | 2 | 67 | 9 | 5.2 | 16 |
| March | 10 | 11 | 14 | 4 | 68 | 9 | 6.4 | 16 |
| April | 13 | 15 | 18 | 8 | 52 | 9 | 8.0 | 14 |
| May | 17 | 20 | 22 | 11 | 58 | 9 | 9.4 | 13 |
| June | 22 | 24 | 27 | 16 | 35 | 7 | 11.3 | 12 |
| July | 25 | 25 | 31 | 18 | 28 | 4 | 12.1 | 12 |
| August | 25 | 25 | 31 | 18 | 29 | 5 | 10.8 | 12 |
| September | 23 | 24 | 25 | 14 | 73 | 8 | 8.3 | 13 |
| October | 19 | 21 | 20 | 11 | 79 | 10 | 6.1 | 13 |
| November | 15 | 17 | 15 | 7 | 110 | 12 | 4.0 | 15 |
| December | 11 | 13 | 10 | 3 | 86 | 11 | 3.6 | 15 |
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 283 km² of land.
- About 3.2 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Bolsena
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 14beaches and swimming spots
Spiaggia del Borghetto, Spiaggia La Cava, Spiaggia di Montefiascone and 11 more
- 17campsites
Agricamping Monterontondo, Bolsena Holiday House, Camping Park Valdisole, Massimo Camping e Appartamenti, Camping La Cappelletta and 12 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 1marinas and slipways
- 1ferry piers
Lago di Bolsena
- 11viewpoints
Presepe subacqueo, belvedere, Lo Spigolo and 8 more
- 30hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Le Naiadi Park Hotel, Parkhotel Loriana, Platani, Pensione Italia, Hotel Royal and 25 more
- 10fishing spots
Carp fishing Piazzolla no 16, Carp fishing Piazzolla no 12, Carp fishing Piazzolla no 8a, Carp fishing Piazzolla no 7, Carp fishing Piazzolla no 11 and 5 more
- 67restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Montefiascone10,637 people
- Bolsena3,468 people
- Marta3,253 people
- Capodimonte1,399 people
- Gradoli1,305 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Perugia San Francesco d'Assisi – Umbria International Airport (PEG), 71 km in a straight line.
Car hire at PEG airport (Perugia)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 | 9.3 | 10.4 | 13.9 | 18.1 | 22.3 | 27.4 | 30.8 | 30.8 | 25.4 | 20.5 | 14.9 | 10.4 |
| 2020 | +1.6 | +3.3 | −0.3 | +0.5 | +0.6 | −1.8 | +0.7 | +1.2 | +1.2 | −1.5 | +0.7 | +0.5 |
| 2021 | −0.8 | +1.8 | −0.4 | −2.0 | −1.5 | +0.8 | −0.5 | +0.4 | +2.6 | −1.2 | +0.5 | +0.7 |
| 2022 | −0.1 | +2.0 | −0.7 | −0.6 | +2.7 | +3.8 | +3.8 | +1.3 | +0.5 | +2.7 | +1.0 | +2.8 |
| 2023 | +0.9 | +0.8 | +1.2 | −1.4 | +0.1 | −0.3 | +1.5 | +1.0 | +2.6 | +4.2 | +1.6 | +2.3 |
| 2024 | +2.5 | +3.6 | +1.6 | +1.4 | +0.5 | +0.1 | +3.1 | +3.2 | ±0.0 | +0.9 | +1.2 | +0.3 |
| 2025 | +2.2 | +1.9 | +0.9 | +0.8 | +0.3 | +3.4 | +0.5 | +0.9 | +1.7 | +0.5 | +0.5 | +1.9 |
+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 (Q208180) · 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.
