Glacial lake · Germany
Ratzeburger See
Lake
- Area
- 14.2km²
- Max depth
- 24m
- Average depth
- 15m
- Elevation
- 1m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 33km
- Volume
- 0.214km³
Ratzeburger See is a glacial lake in Germany. It covers 14.2 km². On average it is 15 m deep, and 24 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 Ratzeburger See?
The water is warmest in July, around 22 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 2 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from July to August: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 22 °C on average in July and 3 °C in January. The driest month is April (37 mm of rain), the wettest July (77 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (62 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 | 2 | 3 | 3 | -2 | 63 | 13 | 0.4 | 22 |
| February | 3 | 3 | 4 | -2 | 51 | 12 | 1.7 | 21 |
| March | 5 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 46 | 11 | 4.2 | 20 |
| April | 9 | 11 | 12 | 3 | 37 | 9 | 6.9 | 18 |
| May | 14 | 17 | 17 | 8 | 54 | 11 | 7.8 | 17 |
| June | 19 | 21 | 20 | 12 | 67 | 13 | 8.0 | 17 |
| July | 22 | 22 | 22 | 14 | 77 | 14 | 7.4 | 16 |
| August | 21 | 22 | 22 | 14 | 71 | 14 | 6.3 | 16 |
| September | 17 | 19 | 18 | 10 | 55 | 12 | 5.3 | 18 |
| October | 12 | 15 | 13 | 7 | 60 | 13 | 2.9 | 19 |
| November | 8 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 58 | 13 | 0.8 | 19 |
| December | 4 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 66 | 14 | 0.1 | 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 3.5 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 165 km² of land.
- About 2.0 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Ratzeburger See
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 14beaches and swimming spots
Badestelle Groß Sarau, Badestelle Buchholz, Badestelle Himmelswiese, Badestelle Bäk, Badestelle Campow and 9 more
- 7campsites
Campingplatz "Zur schönen Aussicht", Naturcamping Buchholz, Jugendzeltplatz am Ansveruskreuz, Wohnmobilstellplatz Ratzeburg Aqua Siwa, Camping Schwalkenberg and 2 more
- 11boat hire and water-sport clubs
Kanu-Center Mietstation Wakenitzhaus, Ratzeburger Segelschule, DJH Jugendherberge Ratzeburg, Ratzeburger Kanu Club e.V., Ratzeburger Ruderclub e.V. and 6 more
- 16marinas and slipways
LSV, Segler-Gemeinschaft Schwarzenbek - Kalkhütte, SVW, SCH, Buchholzer Segler-Verein 1970 and 11 more
- 7ferry piers
Schifffahrt Ratzeburger See, Museumsufer/Dom, Römnitz, Buchholz, Schloßwiese and 2 more
- 12viewpoints
Schwalkenberg, Lübeck Blick (20 km), Domseeblick, Barlachblick and 8 more
- 17hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Wittlers Hotel, Gästehof Apolony, Kastanienhof, Jagdaus am Soot, Radlerlodge and 12 more
- 3fishing spots
- 27restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Ratzeburg13,623 people
- Groß Grönau3,502 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Lübeck Blankensee Airport (LBC), 6 km in a straight line.
Car hire at HAM airport (Hamburg)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 | 2.6 | 3.5 | 7.0 | 12.3 | 16.8 | 20.1 | 22.2 | 21.9 | 18.2 | 13.0 | 7.4 | 3.7 |
| 2020 | +3.7 | +4.1 | +1.4 | +1.3 | −1.1 | +1.0 | −1.7 | +2.5 | +1.1 | +0.4 | +1.8 | +0.4 |
| 2021 | −0.1 | −0.5 | +1.4 | −2.6 | −2.5 | +2.8 | +1.2 | −1.4 | +1.2 | +1.0 | +1.0 | −0.3 |
| 2022 | +2.9 | +3.7 | +1.9 | −0.9 | +0.6 | +1.3 | +0.3 | +2.5 | −0.9 | +3.2 | +0.9 | −0.7 |
| 2023 | +3.3 | +2.5 | +1.2 | −0.7 | +0.1 | +2.6 | −0.7 | −0.3 | +3.9 | +1.1 | +0.2 | +1.0 |
| 2024 | +1.1 | +4.2 | +3.1 | +0.5 | +2.8 | −0.2 | ±0.0 | +1.1 | +1.2 | +1.2 | +0.4 | +2.3 |
| 2025 | +1.0 | +0.5 | +2.8 | +2.4 | +0.1 | +0.9 | +0.2 | ±0.0 | +1.0 | +0.6 | +0.4 | +2.0 |
+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 (Q454646) · 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.
