Lake · Switzerland
Lake Neuchâtel
Lake in Switzerland
- Area
- 210km²
- Max depth
- 152m
- Average depth
- 19m
- Elevation
- 422m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 96km
- Volume
- 3.9km³
Lake Neuchâtel is a lake in Switzerland. It covers 210 km². On average it is 19 m deep, and 152 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 422 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Neuchâtel?
The water is warmest in August, around 23 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 5 °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 2 °C in January. The driest month is February (66 mm of rain), the wettest May (124 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (123 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 | 5 | 5 | 2 | -4 | 85 | 12 | 2.2 | 14 |
| February | 5 | 5 | 3 | -4 | 66 | 12 | 3.5 | 14 |
| March | 6 | 7 | 7 | -1 | 86 | 13 | 5.1 | 14 |
| April | 9 | 11 | 12 | 3 | 83 | 13 | 6.5 | 12 |
| May | 14 | 16 | 16 | 7 | 124 | 17 | 6.8 | 12 |
| June | 19 | 21 | 20 | 12 | 112 | 16 | 8.4 | 12 |
| July | 22 | 23 | 22 | 13 | 113 | 16 | 8.5 | 11 |
| August | 23 | 23 | 22 | 13 | 118 | 14 | 7.6 | 11 |
| September | 20 | 21 | 18 | 9 | 83 | 13 | 6.4 | 11 |
| October | 15 | 17 | 13 | 5 | 100 | 13 | 4.3 | 12 |
| November | 10 | 12 | 7 | 0 | 85 | 13 | 2.4 | 12 |
| December | 7 | 8 | 2 | -3 | 96 | 14 | 1.7 | 14 |
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 2.2 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 2,466 km² of land.
- About 57 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Neuchâtel
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 97beaches and swimming spots
Place des Pêcheurs, Plage de Saint-Aubin, Plage de Cortaillod, Plage de Boudry, Jeunes-Rives and 92 more
- 28campsites
Camping de la plage de Boudry, Stellplatz Les Fourches, Stellplatz Nid-du-Crô, Stellplatz Serrières, Stellplatz Cadolles, Neuchâtel and 23 more
- 27boat hire and water-sport clubs
Boudry Plage, La Madonne, Pointe du Grain, Port, Maison du Plongeur and 22 more
- 58marinas and slipways
Port du Petit-Cortaillod, Port des Iris, Port du Nid du Crõ, Port des Jeunes-Rives, Port d'Auvernier and 53 more
- 18ferry piers
Gorgier - Chez-le-Bart, Cortaillod, Vaumarcus, Saint-Blaise, Bevaix and 13 more
- 29viewpoints
Rocher de l'Ermitage, Belvédaire de Plan, Le Chanet, Tour des prisons, La Baumaz and 24 more
- 75hotels, B&Bs and chalets
L'aubier, Le Café-Hôtel, Kim Play, Hôtel des Arts, Alpes et Lac, Hôtel de l'écluse and 70 more
- —fishing spots
- 314restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Neuchâtel33,475 people
- Yverdon-les-Bains30,157 people
- Peseux5,716 people
- Estavayer-le-Lac5,061 people
- Boudry4,886 people
- Cortaillod4,410 people
- Marin-Epagnier4,087 people
- Bevaix3,866 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Bern Airport (BRN), 45 km in a straight line.
Car hire at BRN airport (Bern)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 | 1.6 | 2.7 | 7.4 | 12.3 | 16.0 | 20.2 | 22.1 | 21.8 | 17.8 | 13.2 | 6.8 | 2.5 |
| 2020 | +2.1 | +3.8 | +0.4 | +3.4 | +0.9 | −1.5 | +0.8 | +1.6 | +2.1 | −2.0 | +2.0 | +0.4 |
| 2021 | −1.0 | +3.7 | +0.2 | −2.1 | −2.9 | +1.5 | −1.4 | −2.0 | +1.6 | −0.3 | −1.4 | +0.1 |
| 2022 | +0.7 | +2.3 | +2.9 | −0.4 | +2.8 | +3.2 | +4.0 | +3.9 | ±0.0 | +4.2 | +2.0 | +1.2 |
| 2023 | +1.2 | +2.4 | +1.3 | −1.9 | +0.4 | +2.8 | +2.3 | +2.6 | +5.9 | +4.2 | ±0.0 | +2.0 |
| 2024 | +1.6 | +4.8 | +2.7 | −0.2 | −0.1 | −0.1 | +1.3 | +2.3 | −1.1 | +1.6 | +1.3 | ±0.0 |
| 2025 | +1.9 | +2.0 | +2.1 | +1.8 | +0.6 | +3.4 | −0.2 | +2.3 | −0.6 | −1.2 | +0.2 | +2.2 |
+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 (Q14375) · 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.
