Lake · Italy
Lake Varese
Lake near Varese, Italy
- Area
- 13.5km²
- Max depth
- 26m
- Average depth
- 9.6m
- Elevation
- 234m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 23km
- Volume
- 0.130km³
Lake Varese is a lake in Italy. It covers 13.5 km². On average it is 9.6 m deep, and 26 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 234 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Varese?
The water is warmest in July, around 27 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 4 °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 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 (85 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 | 5 | 3 | -5 | 50 | 9 | 4.2 | 8 |
| February | 5 | 6 | 4 | -3 | 59 | 8 | 5.5 | 8 |
| March | 8 | 11 | 9 | 1 | 70 | 9 | 6.4 | 8 |
| April | 14 | 17 | 14 | 5 | 102 | 13 | 5.9 | 8 |
| May | 20 | 23 | 18 | 9 | 139 | 16 | 5.7 | 8 |
| June | 26 | 27 | 22 | 14 | 120 | 16 | 7.4 | 8 |
| July | 27 | 28 | 24 | 16 | 107 | 15 | 7.9 | 7 |
| August | 26 | 27 | 24 | 16 | 129 | 16 | 7.1 | 7 |
| September | 23 | 25 | 20 | 11 | 99 | 12 | 6.1 | 7 |
| October | 18 | 20 | 14 | 7 | 112 | 12 | 4.7 | 7 |
| November | 12 | 15 | 8 | 2 | 147 | 12 | 3.4 | 7 |
| December | 7 | 9 | 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 11 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 124 km² of land.
- About 4.4 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Varese
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 3beaches and swimming spots
- 2campsites
Area Camper Schiranna, Area Sosta Camper - Gavirate
- 1boat hire and water-sport clubs
Canottieri Gavirate
- 3marinas and slipways
Porticciolo di Cazzago Brabbia
- 3ferry piers
Imbarco Isola Virginia, Imbarcadero
- 17viewpoints
Ponte del diavolo, Foci del Tinella, Punta del Pane, Lungolago di Oltrona al Lago, Belvedere del Rondò and 12 more
- 22hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Residence le Arcate, Vecchia Riva, Belsit, La Casa Creativa, Hotel Capolago and 17 more
- —fishing spots
- 79restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Varese80,588 people
- Gavirate9,206 people
- Azzate4,443 people
- Casciago3,808 people
- Biandronno3,267 people
- Buguggiate3,092 people
- Daverio2,989 people
- Varano Borghi2,418 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Milan Malpensa International Airport (MXP), 20 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
SwitzerlandAbout 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 (Q542913) · 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.
