Lake · United Kingdom
Lough Erne
Lake in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, UK
- Area
- 98.3km²
- Max depth
- 69m
- Average depth
- 12m
- Elevation
- 41m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 227km
- Volume
- 1.2km³
Lough Erne is a lake in United Kingdom. It covers 98.3 km². On average it is 12 m deep, and 69 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 41 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lough Erne?
The water is warmest in July, around 20 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 4 °C. It rarely averages 20 °C, but it stays above 17 °C from June to August: brisk, refreshing swimming.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 18 °C on average in July and 6 °C in January. The driest month is April (69 mm of rain), the wettest August (117 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (60 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 | 6 | 2 | 109 | 20 | 1.2 | 22 |
| February | 4 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 85 | 17 | 2.5 | 21 |
| March | 4 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 84 | 18 | 3.5 | 21 |
| April | 7 | 9 | 11 | 4 | 69 | 17 | 5.4 | 18 |
| May | 12 | 15 | 14 | 6 | 88 | 17 | 6.1 | 18 |
| June | 17 | 19 | 16 | 9 | 99 | 19 | 5.4 | 17 |
| July | 20 | 20 | 18 | 11 | 108 | 21 | 4.8 | 16 |
| August | 19 | 20 | 17 | 10 | 117 | 21 | 4.2 | 17 |
| September | 16 | 17 | 15 | 9 | 92 | 18 | 3.8 | 18 |
| October | 11 | 13 | 12 | 7 | 114 | 19 | 2.6 | 20 |
| November | 8 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 114 | 20 | 1.5 | 20 |
| December | 6 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 110 | 20 | 0.9 | 21 |
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 4 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 4,306 km² of land.
- About 115 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 6.5 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lough Erne
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 3beaches and swimming spots
- 7campsites
Castle Archdale, Clareview Caravan Park, Edgewater Holiday Park & Marina, Castle Archdale Caravan Park and 3 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 36marinas and slipways
ABC-Boats - Aghinver Boat Company, Kesh, Round O, Lough Erne Yacht Club, Innishmacsaint and 31 more
- 2ferry piers
- 5viewpoints
Cliffs of Magho, Devenish Island Round Tower
- 17hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Drumcoo House B&B, Lough Erne Golf Resort, Manor House Hotel, Lough Erne Hotel and 13 more
- —fishing spots
- 3restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Enniskillen14,472 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Donegal Airport (CFN), 71 km in a straight line.
Car hire at CFN airport (Donegal)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Photos
Seen by visitors
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 | 6.1 | 6.4 | 8.1 | 11.0 | 13.9 | 16.5 | 17.8 | 17.3 | 15.4 | 12.1 | 8.6 | 6.6 |
| 2020 | +0.9 | +0.1 | −0.2 | +1.4 | +1.1 | −0.1 | −1.5 | +1.1 | +0.2 | −1.0 | +1.0 | −0.4 |
| 2021 | −1.5 | +0.3 | +1.2 | −0.9 | −1.2 | +0.5 | +2.7 | +1.3 | +2.2 | +1.1 | +1.2 | +1.0 |
| 2022 | +1.0 | +1.3 | +1.9 | +0.6 | +0.7 | ±0.0 | +1.2 | +1.7 | +0.7 | +1.2 | +1.3 | −1.6 |
| 2023 | +0.5 | +2.2 | +0.4 | +0.7 | +2.0 | +3.9 | −0.6 | +0.5 | +2.0 | +0.9 | ±0.0 | +1.1 |
| 2024 | −0.1 | +1.7 | +0.7 | +0.3 | +2.4 | −0.9 | −0.5 | ±0.0 | ±0.0 | +0.9 | +1.1 | +1.6 |
| 2025 | −0.3 | +0.8 | +2.3 | +2.4 | +2.8 | +1.1 | +1.6 | +1.9 | −0.2 | +0.3 | +0.5 | +0.6 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
IrelandAbout 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 (Q1324180) · 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.
