Reservoir · France
Lake of Sainte-Croix
Lac de Sainte-Croix
Artificial lake in southern France
- Area
- 18.7km²
- Max depth
- 93m
- Average depth
- 41m
- Elevation
- 470m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 41km
- Volume
- 0.767km³
Lake of Sainte-Croix is a reservoir in France. It covers 18.7 km². On average it is 41 m deep, and 93 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 470 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake of Sainte-Croix?
The water is warmest in August, around 24 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 8 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from June to September: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 31 °C on average in July and 9 °C in January. The driest month is July (14 mm of rain), the wettest November (109 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (191 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 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 2 | 52 | 7 | 4.5 | 15 |
| February | 8 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 46 | 6 | 5.5 | 15 |
| March | 9 | 10 | 14 | 4 | 50 | 6 | 7.0 | 16 |
| April | 12 | 14 | 17 | 7 | 49 | 8 | 7.8 | 15 |
| May | 17 | 19 | 22 | 11 | 51 | 8 | 9.1 | 15 |
| June | 21 | 23 | 28 | 16 | 29 | 5 | 11.1 | 13 |
| July | 24 | 25 | 31 | 18 | 14 | 3 | 11.8 | 14 |
| August | 24 | 25 | 30 | 18 | 20 | 4 | 10.6 | 14 |
| September | 22 | 23 | 25 | 14 | 48 | 7 | 8.3 | 13 |
| October | 17 | 20 | 20 | 10 | 87 | 9 | 5.9 | 14 |
| November | 13 | 15 | 14 | 6 | 109 | 10 | 4.4 | 15 |
| December | 10 | 11 | 10 | 2 | 72 | 7 | 4.2 | 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 13 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 1,563 km² of land.
- About 22 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 2.7 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake of Sainte-Croix
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 26beaches and swimming spots
Plage des Chaumets, Plage de la petite ruine, Plage de Sulagran, Plage du Galetas, Plage Margaridon and 21 more
- 25campsites
Aire de camping-car Le Galetas - Fermé pour le moment / Closed for now, Camping à la Ferme du Maunard, Camping à la ferme Les Clos du Lac, Aire Communale de Sainte-Croix-du-Verdon, Camping Les Roux and 20 more
- 19boat hire and water-sport clubs
Base nautique de l'Etoile, Alize Electronic Location, Verdon Canoë, JPR Locations, Kako Beach Côté Verdon and 14 more
- 7marinas and slipways
Cale de mise à l'eau de Vigne d'Aiguines, Cale de mise à l'eau de Margaridon, Cale de mise à l'eau de Chabassole, Mise à eau des Chaumets and 3 more
- —ferry piers
- 27viewpoints
Belvédère de Galetas, Belvédère Gorge Baudinard 4, Panorama, Belvédère Gorge Baudinard 1, Belvédère Gorge Baudinard 3 and 22 more
- 12hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Centre de Vacances Sidevar, Studi'hotel Plein voile, Le Chabassole, Domaine de Chanteraine, Ferme de Chanteraine and 7 more
- 4fishing spots
- 29restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Toulon-Hyères Airport (TLN), 72 km in a straight line.
Car hire at CEQ airport (Cannes)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 | 9.1 | 10.1 | 13.5 | 17.3 | 21.7 | 27.8 | 31.3 | 30.5 | 25.1 | 19.6 | 13.8 | 9.9 |
| 2020 | +1.4 | +2.7 | −0.3 | +0.1 | +0.8 | −2.1 | +0.9 | +1.6 | +0.5 | −1.5 | +1.5 | −0.2 |
| 2021 | −1.0 | +2.2 | +0.7 | −1.3 | −1.5 | +0.3 | +0.5 | +0.4 | +1.0 | +0.3 | +0.2 | +1.3 |
| 2022 | +2.0 | +3.1 | +0.1 | +0.8 | +3.6 | +3.9 | +3.5 | +1.4 | +0.3 | +3.3 | +1.9 | +2.0 |
| 2023 | +1.2 | +2.1 | +2.3 | +1.5 | +1.0 | −0.4 | +2.4 | +1.8 | +2.5 | +3.4 | +1.0 | +2.2 |
| 2024 | +2.3 | +4.0 | +1.0 | +0.6 | −0.4 | −0.9 | +2.4 | +3.3 | −0.7 | +1.0 | +1.3 | +1.5 |
| 2025 | +2.2 | +1.9 | +0.8 | +1.1 | +2.0 | +5.1 | +1.1 | +1.4 | +0.6 | +1.0 | +0.8 | +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 (Q258818) · 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.
