Lake · Switzerland
Lake Zurich
Major lake in Switzerland
- Area
- 83.0km²
- Max depth
- 136m
- Average depth
- 18m
- Elevation
- 402m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 102km
- Volume
- 1.5km³
Lake Zurich is a lake in Switzerland. It covers 83.0 km². On average it is 18 m deep, and 136 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 402 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Zurich?
The water is warmest in July, around 24 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 3 °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 20 °C on average in July and 0 °C in January. The driest month is February (80 mm of rain), the wettest August (190 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (130 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 | 3 | 3 | 0 | -8 | 101 | 14 | 2.5 | 9 |
| February | 3 | 4 | 0 | -8 | 80 | 12 | 3.8 | 9 |
| March | 6 | 9 | 5 | -4 | 102 | 15 | 5.3 | 9 |
| April | 11 | 14 | 10 | 1 | 107 | 16 | 6.5 | 8 |
| May | 16 | 19 | 14 | 5 | 163 | 19 | 6.7 | 8 |
| June | 21 | 23 | 18 | 10 | 176 | 20 | 8.0 | 7 |
| July | 24 | 24 | 20 | 12 | 173 | 19 | 8.1 | 7 |
| August | 24 | 24 | 20 | 11 | 190 | 18 | 7.3 | 7 |
| September | 20 | 22 | 16 | 7 | 124 | 15 | 6.0 | 7 |
| October | 16 | 18 | 12 | 3 | 110 | 14 | 4.2 | 8 |
| November | 10 | 12 | 5 | -2 | 103 | 15 | 2.4 | 8 |
| December | 5 | 7 | 0 | -7 | 106 | 15 | 2.0 | 9 |
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 8 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 1,838 km² of land.
- About 73 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 3.1 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Zurich
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 71beaches and swimming spots
Meier's Badhüttli, Badeanlage Steinrad, Zürichhorn, Strandbad Sonnenfeld, Parkbad Seerose and 66 more
- 6campsites
Camping Insel Lützelau, Swiss Camper Toilet - Rastplatz Aspholz, Tschuppis, Campingplatz Stampf, Fischer's Fritz Camping and 1 more
- 102boat hire and water-sport clubs
Wassersportzentrum Zürich (WZT), Steinrad, WZT;Luftverbund, Kleiner Parkplatz Erlenbach Schipfe, Ermitage and 97 more
- 113marinas and slipways
Enge, Rorhaab, Hafen Riesbach, Faul AG, Thalwil Farbsteig and 108 more
- 39ferry piers
Zollikon (See), Erlenbach ZH (See), Meilen Autoquai, Uetikon am See (See), Pfäffikon SZ (See) and 34 more
- 122viewpoints
Schlossgarten, Villa Seerose, Lindenhof, Gottfried-Keller-Plätzli, Becki and 117 more
- 135hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Metzg, Plattenhof, Sorell Hotel Seefeld, Hotel Baur au Lac, Mandarin Oriental Savoy and 130 more
- 2fishing spots
HIRSCHEN, PORTOFINO
- 1,107restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Zürich415,367 people
- Zürich (Kreis 3)46,018 people
- Rapperswil34,776 people
- Zürich (Kreis 7)33,820 people
- Zürich (Kreis 6)29,951 people
- Zürich (Kreis 2)29,215 people
- Zürich (Kreis 4) / Aussersihl27,273 people
- Horgen22,662 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Zürich Airport (ZRH), 30 km in a straight line.
Car hire at ZRH airport (Zurich)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 | -0.5 | 0.4 | 4.7 | 9.7 | 14.0 | 18.2 | 19.8 | 19.5 | 15.5 | 11.5 | 5.1 | 0.4 |
| 2020 | +2.9 | +3.4 | +0.8 | +3.5 | +0.9 | −1.9 | +0.4 | +0.6 | +1.4 | −2.5 | +3.1 | −0.6 |
| 2021 | −1.7 | +1.5 | −0.6 | −2.6 | −3.0 | +1.9 | −0.7 | −1.7 | +2.1 | −0.6 | −0.6 | +0.8 |
| 2022 | +1.2 | +1.7 | +2.4 | −0.1 | +2.2 | +3.1 | +2.2 | +1.6 | −0.5 | +4.3 | +1.3 | +1.1 |
| 2023 | +0.5 | +3.2 | +1.9 | −1.8 | −0.1 | +1.8 | +1.6 | +1.4 | +4.8 | +3.5 | −0.8 | +1.5 |
| 2024 | +1.5 | +5.3 | +2.0 | −0.7 | −0.1 | +0.1 | +1.5 | +3.1 | ±0.0 | +1.5 | +2.1 | +1.2 |
| 2025 | +1.7 | +3.2 | +2.0 | +2.7 | −0.1 | +4.0 | −0.9 | +1.6 | +0.8 | −0.8 | ±0.0 | +2.6 |
+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 (Q14407) · 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.
