Lake · Italy
Lake Garda
Lake in Italy
- Area
- 355km²
- Max depth
- 346m
- Average depth
- 73m
- Elevation
- 62m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 168km
- Volume
- 25.8km³
Lake Garda is a lake in Italy. It covers 355 km². On average it is 73 m deep, and 346 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 62 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Garda?
The water is warmest in July, around 24 °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 30 °C on average in July and 6 °C in January. The driest month is January (40 mm of rain), the wettest November (103 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (183 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 | 6 | -1 | 40 | 7 | 3.2 | 8 |
| February | 8 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 56 | 6 | 4.3 | 9 |
| March | 10 | 11 | 12 | 4 | 56 | 8 | 5.8 | 10 |
| April | 13 | 15 | 17 | 8 | 73 | 12 | 6.5 | 10 |
| May | 17 | 20 | 22 | 12 | 92 | 13 | 7.8 | 9 |
| June | 22 | 23 | 27 | 17 | 75 | 13 | 9.3 | 8 |
| July | 24 | 25 | 30 | 20 | 71 | 12 | 10.2 | 8 |
| August | 24 | 25 | 29 | 19 | 80 | 12 | 8.9 | 8 |
| September | 22 | 23 | 24 | 14 | 76 | 10 | 6.9 | 8 |
| October | 18 | 20 | 18 | 10 | 85 | 10 | 4.5 | 8 |
| November | 14 | 16 | 11 | 5 | 103 | 10 | 2.9 | 9 |
| December | 11 | 12 | 6 | 0 | 60 | 8 | 2.9 | 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 17 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 2,223 km² of land.
- About 48 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 2.5 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Garda
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 150beaches and swimming spots
Lido Brancolino, Gasparina Village, FKK, Spiaggia dello sperone, Spiaggia delle Rive and 145 more
- 143campsites
Du Parc, Relax agricampeggio, Parcheggio Retelino, Park Camper Serenella, Wild camping spot and 138 more
- 41boat hire and water-sport clubs
SurfSegnana, Kite Club Malcesine, Circolo Vela Gargnano, 43° Parallelo di Zana Dario e Zuliani Maria Grazia S.n.c., Circolo Vela Torbole and 36 more
- 130marinas and slipways
Circolo Nautico di Brenzone, Circolo Vela Gargnano, Fraglia della Vela, Lega Navale Italiana - Sezione di Garda, Circolo Vela Torbole and 125 more
- 37ferry piers
Limone Traghetto, Malcesine, Torri del Benaco Traghetto, Maderno Traghetto, Limone centro and 32 more
- 181viewpoints
Regina Mundi, Belvedere degli innamorati, Terrazza del Brivido, Belvedere della Grola and 177 more
- 973hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Hotel Europa, Hotel al Molino, Hotel Anna, Hotel Ariston, Giulietta Romeo and 968 more
- —fishing spots
- 1,186restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Desenzano del Garda22,665 people
- Riva del Garda17,331 people
- Salò10,576 people
- Peschiera del Garda7,733 people
- Toscolano Maderno7,025 people
- Sirmione6,818 people
- Bardolino4,873 people
- Roè Volciano4,177 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Verona Villafranca Valerio Catullo Airport (VRN), 22 km in a straight line.
Car hire at VRN airport (Caselle)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 | 5.6 | 7.6 | 12.4 | 16.9 | 21.5 | 26.6 | 29.7 | 29.1 | 23.8 | 17.9 | 11.4 | 6.5 |
| 2020 | +2.2 | +3.4 | −0.5 | +1.0 | +0.6 | −1.7 | −0.5 | +0.3 | +1.0 | −1.3 | +0.5 | −0.4 |
| 2021 | −1.4 | +1.1 | −0.2 | −2.6 | −1.9 | +1.5 | +0.3 | +0.2 | +1.8 | −0.3 | +0.1 | +0.4 |
| 2022 | +1.7 | +3.1 | ±0.0 | +0.1 | +2.7 | +4.2 | +4.5 | +1.2 | −0.7 | +3.7 | +1.8 | +0.8 |
| 2023 | +1.8 | +1.9 | +1.7 | −0.7 | −0.8 | +0.1 | +0.6 | +1.5 | +3.4 | +3.8 | +0.6 | +2.6 |
| 2024 | +1.9 | +4.1 | +1.0 | +0.2 | −1.2 | −1.9 | −0.2 | +2.3 | −0.4 | +0.2 | +0.2 | +1.5 |
| 2025 | +1.3 | +0.4 | +0.8 | +0.9 | −0.8 | +2.9 | −1.0 | −0.9 | −1.1 | −1.3 | −0.4 | +2.3 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
SwitzerlandAbout 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 (Q6414) · 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.
