Lake · Sweden
Vättern
Second largest lake in Sweden
- Area
- 1,888km²
- Max depth
- 128m
- Average depth
- 39m
- Elevation
- 88m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 645km
- Volume
- 74.0km³
Vättern is a lake in Sweden. It covers 1,888 km². On average it is 39 m deep, and 128 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 88 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Vättern?
The water is warmest in August, around 16 °C at the surface, and coldest in March, around 1 °C. Even at its warmest, the surface stays below 17 °C on average: this is cold water.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 21 °C on average in July and -1 °C in January. The driest month is March (41 mm of rain), the wettest July (108 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (113 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 | -1 | -6 | 50 | 12 | 0.4 | 10 |
| February | 1 | 2 | 0 | -6 | 44 | 12 | 1.9 | 10 |
| March | 1 | 2 | 4 | -3 | 41 | 11 | 5.0 | 10 |
| April | 3 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 42 | 10 | 7.2 | 10 |
| May | 8 | 10 | 15 | 7 | 74 | 14 | 8.4 | 10 |
| June | 13 | 15 | 19 | 11 | 98 | 16 | 9.3 | 10 |
| July | 16 | 17 | 21 | 13 | 108 | 16 | 8.1 | 9 |
| August | 16 | 17 | 20 | 12 | 101 | 17 | 6.7 | 9 |
| September | 14 | 15 | 16 | 9 | 64 | 14 | 5.1 | 10 |
| October | 10 | 12 | 9 | 4 | 74 | 15 | 2.6 | 10 |
| November | 7 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 65 | 15 | 0.7 | 10 |
| December | 5 | 6 | 0 | -4 | 58 | 14 | 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 70 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 6,369 km² of land.
- About 34 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 4.2 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Vättern
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 75beaches and swimming spots
Åmmebergs badet, Vadstena Camping, Sannabadet, Ölands brygga, Vätterstranden and 70 more
- 33campsites
Bankeryd, Furulid, DHR Camping, Länsmansgården, Vadstena ParkStop and 28 more
- 7boat hire and water-sport clubs
Jönköpings Roddsällskap, Kayakomat, Hegarts, Aspa båthamn, Huskvarna Kiosk and 2 more
- 56marinas and slipways
Motala, Hjo hamn, Åmmebergsbåtklubb, Fingalshamn, Sjöbo and 51 more
- 2ferry piers
Gränna
- 49viewpoints
Hjässan, Västra Väggar, Klintens utsiktsplats, Oscarshöjd, Utsikten and 44 more
- 64hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Comfort Hotel, Home Hotel Victoria, Elite Stora Hotellet, Stocklycke vandrarhem, Borghamn Strand and 59 more
- —fishing spots
- 221restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Jönköping112,766 people
- Motala30,944 people
- Huskvarna21,500 people
- Bankeryd8,506 people
- Habo7,740 people
- Hjo6,203 people
- Vadstena5,674 people
- Askersund3,997 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Jönköping Airport (JKG), 58 km in a straight line.
Car hire at LPI airport (Linköping)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 | -1.3 | -0.3 | 3.5 | 10.0 | 15.2 | 18.8 | 21.1 | 19.8 | 15.5 | 9.1 | 3.8 | 0.2 |
| 2020 | +5.5 | +3.7 | +1.4 | +0.6 | −1.8 | +3.3 | −2.6 | +2.4 | +1.2 | +1.1 | +2.9 | +1.9 |
| 2021 | −1.7 | −1.5 | +1.3 | −2.3 | −1.5 | +3.3 | +2.7 | −1.2 | ±0.0 | +1.1 | +0.6 | −3.0 |
| 2022 | +2.7 | +1.9 | +2.4 | −1.6 | −0.8 | +1.7 | ±0.0 | +2.4 | −0.7 | +2.4 | +1.6 | −2.1 |
| 2023 | +2.3 | +2.0 | −1.0 | −0.6 | +1.4 | +3.5 | −2.0 | −1.4 | +2.7 | −0.5 | −2.5 | −1.5 |
| 2024 | −1.5 | +1.7 | +1.4 | −2.1 | +3.9 | −0.4 | −1.2 | +0.5 | +1.5 | +1.7 | +0.8 | +2.4 |
| 2025 | +2.0 | +0.5 | +2.7 | +2.3 | −1.4 | −0.3 | +1.7 | −0.5 | +1.7 | +0.8 | +0.3 | +2.7 |
+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 (Q188195) · 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.
