Lake · Switzerland
Lake Lucerne
Lake at Lucerne, Switzerland
- Area
- 110km²
- Max depth
- 214m
- Average depth
- 120m
- Elevation
- 431m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 132km
- Volume
- 13.1km³
Lake Lucerne is a lake in Switzerland. It covers 110 km². On average it is 120 m deep, and 214 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 431 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Lucerne?
The water is warmest in July, around 22 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 4 °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 21 °C on average in July and 1 °C in January. The driest month is February (75 mm of rain), the wettest August (158 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (115 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 | 4 | 4 | 1 | -5 | 94 | 13 | 2.5 | 10 |
| February | 4 | 5 | 2 | -5 | 75 | 12 | 3.8 | 10 |
| March | 7 | 8 | 7 | -2 | 96 | 14 | 5.3 | 10 |
| April | 10 | 12 | 12 | 3 | 98 | 15 | 6.5 | 9 |
| May | 15 | 17 | 16 | 7 | 150 | 18 | 6.7 | 9 |
| June | 19 | 21 | 20 | 11 | 146 | 18 | 8.0 | 9 |
| July | 22 | 22 | 21 | 13 | 152 | 18 | 8.1 | 9 |
| August | 21 | 22 | 21 | 13 | 158 | 17 | 7.3 | 8 |
| September | 19 | 20 | 17 | 8 | 101 | 14 | 6.0 | 8 |
| October | 14 | 17 | 13 | 4 | 100 | 13 | 4.2 | 9 |
| November | 10 | 12 | 7 | 0 | 93 | 14 | 2.4 | 9 |
| December | 6 | 8 | 2 | -4 | 100 | 14 | 2.0 | 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 4.5 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 2,223 km² of land.
- About 93 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 3.5 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Lucerne
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 61beaches and swimming spots
Boden, Brunnen, Rütenen, Badeplatz, Badeplatz Felsberg and 56 more
- 19campsites
Camping Hostetten, Campingplatz Gerbeweid, Camping Seelisberg, Camping Buochs-Vierwaldstättersee, Camping International Lido Luzern and 14 more
- 57boat hire and water-sport clubs
Lopper 1, Beckenried Rütenen Einstieg 1, Beckenried Rütenen Einstieg 2, Grenzstein, Schiessüberwachung and 52 more
- 45marinas and slipways
Bootshafen Tribschenhorn, Gemeindebootshafen Hergiswil, Benzenholz, Bootshafen Rütenen, Motorboothafen Luzern and 40 more
- 71ferry piers
Rütli, Hertenstein (See), Brunnen (See), Gersau Förstli (Fähre), Beckenried (See) and 66 more
- 147viewpoints
Reusswehr, Chänzeli, Axenstein, Schwandenfluh, Seeblick and 142 more
- 170hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Flora, Felmis, City Hotel, Brunnerhof, Cabana and 165 more
- —fishing spots
- 527restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Luzern81,691 people
- Kriens25,010 people
- Küssnacht13,084 people
- Horw12,348 people
- Ebikon11,471 people
- Altdorf9,401 people
- Stans8,393 people
- Ingenbohl7,967 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Zürich Airport (ZRH), 50 km in a straight line.
Car hire at ZRH airport (Zurich)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 | 1.3 | 2.3 | 6.7 | 11.7 | 15.6 | 19.7 | 21.3 | 20.8 | 16.9 | 13.0 | 6.6 | 2.2 |
| 2020 | +2.9 | +4.2 | +0.6 | +3.3 | +0.8 | −1.7 | +0.5 | +0.7 | +1.3 | −1.9 | +2.6 | −0.4 |
| 2021 | −1.8 | +2.8 | +0.2 | −2.1 | −2.8 | +1.4 | −1.1 | −1.5 | +1.7 | −0.4 | −1.2 | +0.6 |
| 2022 | +0.9 | +2.0 | +2.7 | −0.3 | +2.3 | +3.1 | +2.2 | +2.2 | −0.1 | +4.4 | +1.8 | +1.1 |
| 2023 | +0.9 | +3.0 | +2.1 | −1.8 | −0.1 | +2.0 | +1.8 | +1.8 | +4.7 | +3.5 | −0.3 | +1.7 |
| 2024 | +1.7 | +5.4 | +2.2 | −0.2 | −0.2 | ±0.0 | +1.4 | +2.7 | −0.4 | +1.6 | +1.4 | +1.0 |
| 2025 | +1.5 | +2.5 | +2.0 | +2.1 | −0.1 | +3.6 | −0.7 | +1.6 | +0.4 | −1.1 | +0.3 | +2.4 |
+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 (Q14381) · 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.
