Glacial lake · Switzerland · France
Lake Geneva
Lake in Switzerland and France
- Area
- 572km²
- Max depth
- 309m
- Average depth
- 156m
- Elevation
- 370m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 178km
- Volume
- 89.0km³
Lake Geneva is a glacial lake in Switzerland. It covers 572 km². On average it is 156 m deep, and 309 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 370 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Geneva?
The water is warmest in July, around 22 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 6 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from July to August: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 22 °C on average in July and 1 °C in January. The driest month is February (72 mm of rain), the wettest May (126 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (142 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 | 6 | 6 | 1 | -6 | 92 | 12 | 3.3 | 10 |
| February | 6 | 6 | 2 | -6 | 72 | 11 | 4.4 | 10 |
| March | 8 | 9 | 6 | -2 | 90 | 13 | 5.5 | 10 |
| April | 11 | 13 | 12 | 2 | 81 | 13 | 6.3 | 9 |
| May | 15 | 17 | 15 | 6 | 126 | 17 | 6.6 | 9 |
| June | 20 | 21 | 20 | 11 | 114 | 16 | 8.5 | 9 |
| July | 22 | 22 | 22 | 12 | 115 | 15 | 8.9 | 9 |
| August | 22 | 22 | 21 | 12 | 120 | 14 | 7.9 | 8 |
| September | 20 | 21 | 17 | 8 | 81 | 13 | 6.9 | 8 |
| October | 15 | 18 | 13 | 4 | 94 | 13 | 5.0 | 8 |
| November | 11 | 13 | 6 | -1 | 90 | 13 | 3.1 | 9 |
| December | 8 | 9 | 2 | -4 | 101 | 14 | 2.6 | 10 |
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 11 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 7,969 km² of land.
- About 260 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Geneva
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 231beaches and swimming spots
Plage de St-Saphorin, Plage ONU, Plage de la Falaise, Plage des Trois Jetées, Plage des Rocailles and 226 more
- 41campsites
Camping Les Carettes, Aire de camping car Corzent, Stellplatz Villeneuve, Camping de Vidy, TCS Camping Genève - Vésenaz and 36 more
- 53boat hire and water-sport clubs
La Croix, Ecole de Mission, Falaise Bikini, Plage d'Hermance, Lac Léman-Le Boesch and 48 more
- 190marinas and slipways
Port de la Gouille, Port de la Baie de l'Eglise, Port La Belotte, Jetée de l'Etire, Port de Bellerive and 185 more
- 55ferry piers
Nyon, Chens-sur-Léman-Tougues, Excenevex, Saint-Prex, Saint-Sulpice and 50 more
- 115viewpoints
Esplanade de Montbenon, Esplanade Bonaparte, Colline du Languedoc, Lake Geneva Overlook and 111 more
- 274hotels, B&Bs and chalets
La Nouvelle Couronne, Hôtel Suisse, Astra Hotel, Hôtel du Port, Hôtel du Quai and 269 more
- 1fishing spots
- 1,761restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Geneva201,741 people
- Lausanne139,111 people
- Thonon-les-Bains31,684 people
- Montreux25,984 people
- Renens20,927 people
- Vevey19,891 people
- Carouge19,344 people
- Nyon16,797 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Geneva International Airport (GVA), 44 km in a straight line.
Car hire at GVA airport (Geneva)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 | 1.1 | 2.0 | 6.5 | 11.5 | 15.2 | 19.7 | 21.7 | 21.3 | 17.3 | 13.1 | 6.5 | 2.1 |
| 2020 | +2.5 | +3.6 | +1.0 | +3.3 | +1.4 | −1.9 | +1.0 | +1.5 | +1.6 | −2.5 | +2.7 | ±0.0 |
| 2021 | −1.6 | +4.0 | +0.4 | −2.2 | −2.6 | +1.2 | −1.5 | −1.7 | +1.9 | ±0.0 | −0.8 | +0.3 |
| 2022 | +1.4 | +2.1 | +3.3 | −0.1 | +3.0 | +3.8 | +4.3 | +4.0 | +0.1 | +4.0 | +1.3 | +1.5 |
| 2023 | +0.5 | +3.4 | +1.5 | −1.8 | +0.4 | +2.2 | +2.2 | +2.9 | +5.7 | +4.0 | −0.7 | +1.5 |
| 2024 | +1.9 | +5.3 | +2.5 | −0.2 | −0.2 | −0.2 | +1.3 | +2.6 | −1.5 | +1.6 | +1.8 | +0.6 |
| 2025 | +1.8 | +3.2 | +2.4 | +2.3 | +0.3 | +3.9 | −0.2 | +2.4 | −0.1 | −1.2 | +0.3 | +2.3 |
+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 (Q6403) · 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.
