
Lake · Estonia
Lake Harku
Lake in Tallinn, Estonia
- Area
- 1.4km²
- Max depth
- 2m
- Average depth
- 2.6m
- Elevation
- 2m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 5.4km
- Volume
- 0.004km³
Lake Harku is a lake in Estonia. It covers 1.4 km². On average it is 2.6 m deep, and 2 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 2 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Harku?
The water is warmest in July, around 21 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more in July: comfortable for most swimmers.
The lake usually freezes over for about 121 days a year, from around 19 November to 19 March.
On the shore, afternoons reach 20 °C on average in July and -2 °C in February. The driest month is April (39 mm of rain), the wettest October (72 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (140 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 | Ice | — | -1 | -4 | 53 | 13 | 0.1 | 26 |
| February | Ice | — | -2 | -5 | 43 | 11 | 1.5 | 25 |
| March | Ice | — | 1 | -3 | 39 | 10 | 4.9 | 23 |
| April | 7 | 11 | 6 | 1 | 39 | 9 | 7.2 | 20 |
| May | 14 | 17 | 12 | 7 | 46 | 8 | 9.6 | 18 |
| June | 20 | 21 | 16 | 12 | 63 | 11 | 9.1 | 19 |
| July | 21 | 22 | 20 | 16 | 59 | 12 | 8.9 | 18 |
| August | 20 | 21 | 20 | 16 | 69 | 13 | 7.3 | 20 |
| September | 15 | 18 | 15 | 12 | 58 | 12 | 4.5 | 24 |
| October | 8 | 12 | 9 | 6 | 72 | 14 | 1.9 | 25 |
| November | 1 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 71 | 15 | 0.0 | 27 |
| December | Ice | — | 1 | -1 | 59 | 15 | 0.0 | 29 |
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 3 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 34 km² of land.
- About 0.4 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Harku
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 2beaches and swimming spots
Harku järve väliujula, Harku rand
- —campsites
- 1boat hire and water-sport clubs
Harku sõudebaas
- 1marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- —viewpoints
- 3hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Rocca House by Larsen, RING Sport Hostel, Sume
- —fishing spots
- 12restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Mustamäe67,968 people
- Haabersti51,423 people
- Tiskre1,615 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport (TLL), 12 km in a straight line.
Car hire at TLL airport (Tallinn)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 | -1.1 | -1.9 | 0.6 | 5.6 | 11.5 | 15.9 | 20.0 | 19.6 | 15.4 | 9.1 | 4.7 | 1.4 |
| 2020 | +5.3 | +4.8 | +2.8 | +0.7 | −1.2 | +2.4 | −1.5 | +0.2 | +0.9 | +2.2 | +2.6 | +0.6 |
| 2021 | ±0.0 | −1.5 | +0.6 | −0.3 | −1.3 | +3.5 | +3.2 | −1.3 | −2.1 | +1.3 | +0.8 | −2.1 |
| 2022 | +1.3 | +2.3 | +1.0 | −1.1 | −1.7 | +2.3 | +0.5 | +2.7 | −1.7 | +1.9 | +0.1 | −0.9 |
| 2023 | +1.4 | +2.3 | +0.7 | +1.0 | +0.8 | +2.6 | −0.8 | +0.9 | +2.7 | ±0.0 | −0.9 | −2.2 |
| 2024 | −1.7 | +0.9 | +1.6 | −0.8 | +3.0 | +2.7 | +1.0 | +1.2 | +3.2 | +2.5 | +2.0 | +2.2 |
| 2025 | +3.2 | +1.3 | +3.3 | +1.4 | −0.5 | −0.3 | +0.8 | −1.0 | +1.8 | +1.1 | +2.0 | +2.6 |
+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 (Q621853) · 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.

