Lake · Sweden
Mälaren
Lake in Sweden
- Area
- 1,083km²
- Max depth
- 64m
- Average depth
- 13m
- Elevation
- 3m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 2,126km
- Volume
- 14.0km³
Mälaren is a lake in Sweden. It covers 1,083 km². On average it is 13 m deep, and 64 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 3 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The water
How warm is Mälaren?
The water is warmest in July, around 20 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 0 °C. It rarely averages 20 °C, but it stays above 17 °C from July to August: brisk, refreshing swimming.
The lake usually freezes over for about 63 days a year, from around 28 January to 31 March.
On the shore, afternoons reach 23 °C on average in July and -2 °C in January. The driest month is April (38 mm of rain), the wettest June (85 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (137 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 | 1 | 2 | -2 | -6 | 46 | 10 | 0.4 | 10 |
| February | Ice | — | -1 | -6 | 40 | 10 | 2.0 | 9 |
| March | Ice | — | 3 | -3 | 39 | 10 | 5.0 | 10 |
| April | 2 | 4 | 10 | 1 | 38 | 10 | 7.2 | 10 |
| May | 8 | 12 | 15 | 6 | 57 | 11 | 8.5 | 9 |
| June | 15 | 18 | 20 | 11 | 85 | 14 | 9.4 | 9 |
| July | 20 | 20 | 23 | 14 | 81 | 14 | 8.5 | 9 |
| August | 19 | 20 | 22 | 13 | 78 | 14 | 7.0 | 9 |
| September | 16 | 18 | 16 | 9 | 55 | 11 | 5.1 | 10 |
| October | 11 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 65 | 12 | 2.5 | 10 |
| November | 6 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 60 | 13 | 0.6 | 9 |
| December | 3 | 5 | 0 | -4 | 53 | 13 | 0.2 | 10 |
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 2.6 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 22,682 km² of land.
- About 171 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 18.2 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Mälaren
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 110beaches and swimming spots
Fredhällsbadet, Lyssnabadet, Sandviken, Kullabadet, Gröna Udden and 105 more
- 15campsites
Björknäs Camping, Stockholm SweCamp Flottsbro, Skokloster Camping, Bredäng Camping Stockholm, Mälarbadens Camping and 10 more
- 6boat hire and water-sport clubs
Örnsbergs kanotsällskap, Långholmen kajak, Västerås Wake Park, KAYAKOMAT Stockholm Gröndal, Västerås kanotklubb and 1 more
- 112marinas and slipways
Mälar Marinan, Sigtuna båthamn och gästhamn, ESK, USS, UMS and 107 more
- 14ferry piers
Sigtuna brygga, Mälarehamnen, Mariefreds ångbåtsstation, Årsta holmars brygga, Lilla Essingen and 9 more
- 48viewpoints
Årstablick, Långberget, Hatten, Sätraberget (nedre), Johannelundstoppen and 43 more
- —fishing spots
Towns on the shore
- Stockholm1,515,017 people
- Västerås127,799 people
- Södermalm127,323 people
- Bromma72,000 people
- Södertälje70,777 people
- Kungsholmen69,363 people
- Solna66,909 people
- Vasastaden58,458 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Stockholm-Bromma Airport (BMA), 30 km in a straight line.
Car hire at ARN airport (Stockholm)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 | -1.6 | -0.6 | 3.2 | 9.6 | 15.3 | 19.7 | 22.8 | 21.5 | 16.5 | 9.2 | 3.7 | 0.0 |
| 2020 | +5.8 | +4.2 | +1.7 | +0.3 | −2.1 | +3.9 | −2.0 | +2.4 | +1.5 | +1.6 | +3.1 | +2.7 |
| 2021 | −0.9 | −1.3 | +1.5 | −1.4 | −1.6 | +3.7 | +3.3 | −1.8 | −1.0 | +1.3 | ±0.0 | −2.5 |
| 2022 | +1.6 | +1.3 | +2.6 | −1.0 | −0.5 | +2.3 | +0.3 | +2.7 | −1.3 | +2.7 | +1.7 | −2.3 |
| 2023 | +2.5 | +1.2 | −1.1 | −0.5 | +0.7 | +3.2 | −1.4 | −1.6 | +2.0 | −0.9 | −2.0 | −2.5 |
| 2024 | −2.3 | +1.3 | +1.3 | −2.6 | +3.5 | +0.5 | −1.3 | +0.6 | +1.8 | +2.2 | +0.6 | +1.7 |
| 2025 | +1.7 | +0.4 | +3.0 | +1.7 | −1.8 | ±0.0 | +2.4 | −1.0 | +2.1 | +1.1 | +0.3 | +3.0 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
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 (Q184492) · 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.
