Lake · Italy · Switzerland
Lake Maggiore
Lake in Italy and Switzerland
- Area
- 208km²
- Max depth
- 372m
- Average depth
- 84m
- Elevation
- 191m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 196km
- Volume
- 17.4km³
Lake Maggiore is a lake in Italy. It covers 208 km². On average it is 84 m deep, and 372 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 191 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Maggiore?
The water is warmest in July, around 23 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 7 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from June to August: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 24 °C on average in July and 3 °C in January. The driest month is January (50 mm of rain), the wettest November (147 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (91 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 | 7 | 8 | 3 | -5 | 50 | 9 | 4.2 | 8 |
| February | 7 | 7 | 4 | -3 | 59 | 8 | 5.5 | 8 |
| March | 8 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 70 | 9 | 6.4 | 8 |
| April | 12 | 14 | 14 | 5 | 102 | 13 | 5.9 | 8 |
| May | 16 | 19 | 18 | 9 | 139 | 16 | 5.7 | 8 |
| June | 21 | 22 | 22 | 14 | 120 | 16 | 7.4 | 8 |
| July | 23 | 23 | 24 | 16 | 107 | 15 | 7.9 | 7 |
| August | 23 | 23 | 24 | 16 | 129 | 16 | 7.1 | 7 |
| September | 20 | 21 | 20 | 11 | 99 | 12 | 6.1 | 7 |
| October | 16 | 18 | 14 | 7 | 112 | 12 | 4.7 | 7 |
| November | 12 | 14 | 8 | 2 | 147 | 12 | 3.4 | 7 |
| December | 9 | 10 | 4 | -3 | 73 | 10 | 3.5 | 7 |
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 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 6,750 km² of land.
- About 311 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 3.8 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Maggiore
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 160beaches and swimming spots
Bagno pubblico, Spiaggia dell' Arena Rigoletto, Public Beach Spiaggia Oggebbio, Spiaggia Oggebbio, Spiaggia di Cannero and 155 more
- 58campsites
Agricampeggio Lago Maggiore, Campeggio Pedro, Cannobio, Casali Masserecci, 7, Camping Riviera, Camping Lido Cannero Riviera and 53 more
- 35boat hire and water-sport clubs
Porto, Porto alla Ressiga, Lago Maggiore-Sud, Aqua Tenero, Lido Locarno and 30 more
- 150marinas and slipways
Porto communale, Reno di Leggiuno, Porto di Arolo, Sasso Moro, Brebbia - Lavazza and 145 more
- 48ferry piers
Intra, Isole di Brissago, Cannobio, Maccagno, Luino and 43 more
- 176viewpoints
Belvedere Augusto Zucoli, Balladrum and 174 more
- 402hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Az. Agr. Da Attilio, Residenza dei Castani, Europalace, Aqvadolce, Lido and 397 more
- 1fishing spots
Pesca sportiva il Pesorto
- 899restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Verbania31,070 people
- Pallanza-Intra-Suna28,911 people
- Locarno15,824 people
- Somma Lombardo14,851 people
- Arona12,970 people
- Luino12,146 people
- Castelletto Sopra Ticino9,213 people
- Sesto Calende8,434 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Lugano Airport (LUG), 17 km in a straight line.
Car hire at MXP airport (Ferno)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 | 2.8 | 4.4 | 9.1 | 13.6 | 17.8 | 22.2 | 24.4 | 23.8 | 19.6 | 14.4 | 8.4 | 3.6 |
| 2020 | +2.8 | +3.4 | −0.1 | +1.5 | +1.0 | −1.3 | ±0.0 | +0.7 | +0.7 | −1.3 | +1.5 | −1.2 |
| 2021 | −1.2 | +0.1 | +0.2 | −2.3 | −2.0 | +0.7 | −0.6 | −0.3 | +1.0 | −0.4 | +0.2 | +1.1 |
| 2022 | +2.8 | +3.1 | ±0.0 | +0.3 | +2.4 | +3.3 | +4.0 | +2.3 | −0.1 | +3.8 | +1.2 | +0.5 |
| 2023 | +1.5 | +3.5 | +2.1 | −0.3 | −0.3 | +0.2 | +0.7 | +1.9 | +2.2 | +3.3 | +0.3 | +1.9 |
| 2024 | +2.2 | +4.4 | +0.9 | ±0.0 | −1.6 | −0.9 | +0.9 | +2.4 | −1.4 | +0.9 | +1.2 | +2.2 |
| 2025 | +0.8 | +1.4 | +0.8 | +1.2 | +0.3 | +2.4 | −0.4 | +0.7 | −0.2 | −0.5 | ±0.0 | +2.5 |
+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 (Q14379) · 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.
