Lake · Albania · Montenegro
Lake Skadar
Lake on the border of Albania and Montenegro
- Area
- 381km²
- Max depth
- 44m
- Average depth
- 41m
- Elevation
- 1m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 207km
- Volume
- 15.6km³
Lake Skadar is a lake in Albania. It covers 381 km². On average it is 41 m deep, and 44 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 1 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Skadar?
The water is warmest in July, around 28 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 7 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from May to September: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 31 °C on average in August and 8 °C in January. The driest month is July (32 mm of rain), the wettest November (170 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (181 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 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 142 | 11 | 3.1 | 15 |
| February | 8 | 9 | 10 | 4 | 131 | 11 | 3.5 | 16 |
| March | 11 | 14 | 13 | 7 | 125 | 11 | 4.4 | 14 |
| April | 16 | 18 | 17 | 11 | 94 | 11 | 5.6 | 11 |
| May | 21 | 23 | 22 | 15 | 80 | 10 | 7.1 | 10 |
| June | 25 | 27 | 26 | 19 | 57 | 7 | 9.1 | 9 |
| July | 28 | 28 | 30 | 22 | 32 | 6 | 10.1 | 10 |
| August | 28 | 28 | 31 | 22 | 33 | 6 | 9.6 | 10 |
| September | 25 | 26 | 25 | 18 | 104 | 9 | 6.8 | 12 |
| October | 20 | 23 | 20 | 13 | 126 | 11 | 5.4 | 12 |
| November | 14 | 17 | 15 | 9 | 170 | 13 | 3.8 | 14 |
| December | 9 | 11 | 10 | 5 | 163 | 13 | 2.9 | 16 |
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 2.9 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 3,884 km² of land.
- About 167 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 3.0 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Skadar
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 20beaches and swimming spots
Spilicat, Vani Fikut, Plaža Murići, Quiet Beach, Plazhi Publik i Shirokës and 15 more
- 19campsites
Kamp Donji Murići, Camp Virpazar, Kamp Lad, Auto Camp Vranjina, Lake Shkodra Resort (outer camp) and 14 more
- 8boat hire and water-sport clubs
King Fisher, Heron, Milica, Monte frog, Viktor and 3 more
- 13marinas and slipways
Vani Sjercit, Virpazar and 11 more
- 4ferry piers
Trageti Venezia
- 21viewpoints
Pikë Vrojtimi, Vidikovac Livari, Bird watching tower and 18 more
- 43hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Te Mehmeti, Art Studio Apartment, Draga's Rooms, Hostel Legjenda, Guesthouse Virski Pub and 38 more
- —fishing spots
- 267restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Shkodër95,553 people
- Kuç
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Podgorica Airport / Podgorica Golubovci Airbase (TGD), 21 km in a straight line.
Car hire at TGD airport (Podgorica)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 | 8.5 | 9.9 | 13.2 | 17.1 | 21.5 | 26.4 | 30.4 | 30.7 | 25.3 | 20.1 | 15.3 | 10.1 |
| 2020 | +0.9 | +2.3 | +0.6 | −0.2 | ±0.0 | −1.6 | +0.7 | +0.4 | +2.6 | −0.6 | +0.3 | +2.6 |
| 2021 | +1.3 | +2.1 | −1.0 | −2.1 | −0.5 | +1.7 | +1.9 | +1.0 | +0.4 | −1.4 | +1.2 | +0.4 |
| 2022 | ±0.0 | +1.2 | −1.8 | −0.4 | +2.3 | +3.3 | +2.5 | +0.6 | −0.6 | +1.6 | +1.1 | +3.3 |
| 2023 | +3.0 | +0.4 | +1.0 | −1.2 | +0.2 | −0.3 | +1.9 | +0.2 | +2.9 | +3.7 | +0.8 | +2.2 |
| 2024 | +1.7 | +4.0 | +2.0 | +2.3 | +0.6 | +2.6 | +3.1 | +2.6 | ±0.0 | +1.4 | −0.6 | +1.1 |
| 2025 | +2.6 | +0.6 | +1.9 | +0.9 | −0.7 | +3.8 | +1.6 | +0.8 | +2.0 | −1.4 | +0.4 | +2.3 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
Montenegro1.7 km² · 68 km away21°maxFierza ReservoirAlbania39.3 km² · 90 km away27°maxBilećko Lake
Bosnia and Herzegovina22.4 km² · 102 km away26°maxRadoniq Lake
Kosovo5.0 km² · 97 km away26°maxBlack LakeMontenegro0.4 km² · 109 km away20°maxDebar Lake
North Macedonia10.1 km² · 125 km away24°maxAbout 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 (Q203811) · 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.
