Lake · Switzerland · Germany
Untersee
Basin of Lake Constance
- Area
- 522km²
- Max depth
- 40m
- Average depth
- 94m
- Elevation
- 392m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 285km
- Volume
- 49.0km³
Untersee is a lake in Switzerland. It covers 522 km². On average it is 94 m deep, and 40 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 392 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Untersee?
The water is warmest in July, around 23 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 3 °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 2 °C in January. The driest month is February (77 mm of rain), the wettest August (166 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (66 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 | 4 | 2 | -4 | 99 | 14 | 2.5 | 11 |
| February | 3 | 4 | 3 | -4 | 77 | 12 | 3.7 | 11 |
| March | 5 | 7 | 8 | 0 | 95 | 15 | 5.3 | 11 |
| April | 9 | 11 | 13 | 4 | 92 | 14 | 6.5 | 10 |
| May | 14 | 17 | 17 | 8 | 147 | 18 | 6.7 | 10 |
| June | 20 | 22 | 21 | 12 | 156 | 19 | 8.0 | 9 |
| July | 23 | 23 | 22 | 14 | 158 | 18 | 8.1 | 9 |
| August | 22 | 23 | 22 | 14 | 166 | 17 | 7.3 | 8 |
| September | 19 | 21 | 18 | 10 | 116 | 14 | 6.0 | 9 |
| October | 14 | 17 | 14 | 6 | 101 | 13 | 4.2 | 9 |
| November | 9 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 88 | 13 | 2.4 | 9 |
| December | 6 | 7 | 2 | -3 | 104 | 15 | 2.0 | 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 4.5 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 11,460 km² of land.
- About 349 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 3.5 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Untersee
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 264beaches and swimming spots
FKK-Strand, Rhiibadi, Seewiesen, Schwarzbad, Strandbad Eriskirch and 259 more
- 94campsites
Idyll, Oase, Marina Rheinhof, Wohnmobilstellplatz Gebhardshof, Wohnmobilstellplätze Klausenhorn and 89 more
- 119boat hire and water-sport clubs
Bootscharter Weber, Bootsverleih, Segelclub Lindau, Eschenz-Stein am Rhein, Brücke-Schifflände and 114 more
- 352marinas and slipways
Yachthafen Herrenbrücke, Lindauer Segler-Club, Alter Hafen, Yachthafen Staad, SC Bodman and 347 more
- 91ferry piers
Rorschach Hafen (See), Mannenbach (See), Reichenau, Dingelsdorf, Kressbronn and 86 more
- 259viewpoints
Aussichtsplattform Moleturm, Bismarck-Denkmal, Bismarckturm, Fürstenberg, Seedole and 254 more
- 921hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Stadthotel Kleiner Berg, Jugendherberge Stein am Rhein, PLAZA Hotel Föhr am Bodensee, DJH Jugendherberge Otto-Moericke-Turm Konstanz, Casa Constanza and 916 more
- —fishing spots
- 1,178restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Konstanz81,275 people
- Friedrichshafen58,403 people
- Radolfzell31,734 people
- Bregenz29,806 people
- Lindau24,518 people
- Kreuzlingen21,997 people
- Überlingen21,507 people
- Petershausen-West16,021 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Bodensee Airport Friedrichshafen (FDH), 11 km in a straight line.
Car hire at FDH airport (Friedrichshafen)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 | 2.8 | 7.8 | 12.9 | 16.8 | 20.7 | 22.3 | 21.8 | 17.7 | 13.5 | 7.2 | 2.5 |
| 2020 | +2.8 | +4.1 | +0.4 | +3.0 | +0.2 | −1.8 | +0.3 | +0.6 | +1.3 | −1.6 | +1.9 | −0.2 |
| 2021 | −1.7 | +2.9 | −0.2 | −2.7 | −3.3 | +1.6 | −0.9 | −1.7 | +1.8 | −0.4 | −1.5 | ±0.0 |
| 2022 | +0.9 | +2.0 | +2.4 | −1.0 | +1.9 | +2.7 | +1.7 | +1.5 | −0.7 | +4.4 | +1.9 | +1.0 |
| 2023 | +1.8 | +2.6 | +1.5 | −2.1 | −0.1 | +2.3 | +1.2 | +1.2 | +4.5 | +3.5 | −0.4 | +1.8 |
| 2024 | +1.7 | +5.2 | +2.4 | ±0.0 | +0.1 | +0.2 | +1.2 | +2.5 | +0.2 | +1.9 | +0.5 | +0.8 |
| 2025 | +1.7 | +2.4 | +2.2 | +2.0 | −0.2 | +3.1 | −0.8 | +1.1 | +0.3 | −1.0 | +0.1 | +2.5 |
+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 (Q565637) · 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.
