Lake · Estonia
Võrtsjärv
Lake in Estonia
- Area
- 260km²
- Max depth
- 6m
- Average depth
- 7.6m
- Elevation
- 33m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 104km
- Volume
- 2.0km³
Võrtsjärv is a lake in Estonia. It covers 260 km². On average it is 7.6 m deep, and 6 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 33 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 Võrtsjärv?
The water is warmest in July, around 21 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more in July: comfortable for most swimmers.
The lake usually freezes over for about 130 days a year, from around 14 November to 23 March.
On the shore, afternoons reach 23 °C on average in July and -4 °C in January. The driest month is March (42 mm of rain), the wettest June (88 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (94 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 | Ice | — | -4 | -10 | 50 | 13 | 0.4 | 19 |
| February | Ice | — | -4 | -10 | 44 | 11 | 1.9 | 18 |
| March | Ice | — | 1 | -6 | 42 | 11 | 4.8 | 18 |
| April | 7 | 11 | 9 | 0 | 46 | 11 | 6.7 | 17 |
| May | 14 | 18 | 16 | 6 | 56 | 11 | 8.7 | 16 |
| June | 20 | 21 | 20 | 11 | 88 | 14 | 8.3 | 16 |
| July | 21 | 22 | 23 | 14 | 74 | 14 | 8.2 | 14 |
| August | 19 | 21 | 22 | 13 | 86 | 14 | 6.7 | 15 |
| September | 14 | 17 | 16 | 8 | 58 | 12 | 4.5 | 17 |
| October | 7 | 11 | 8 | 2 | 69 | 14 | 1.8 | 18 |
| November | Ice | — | 2 | -2 | 69 | 14 | 0.0 | 18 |
| December | Ice | — | -2 | -6 | 59 | 14 | 0.1 | 20 |
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 2.0 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 3,531 km² of land.
- About 31 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Võrtsjärv
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 11beaches and swimming spots
Trepimäe supelrand, Pikasilla supelrand, Pikasilla ujumiskoht, Tarvastu puhkeala supelrand, Trepimäe ujumiskoht and 6 more
- 7campsites
Vaibla Puhkekeskus, Vaibla Puhkeskeskus, süstalaager, Kiviranna Puhkemaja, Tarvastu poldri puhkeala and 2 more
- 2boat hire and water-sport clubs
Oiu sadama paadilaenutus, Tamme küla Oru talu surfiplats
- 8marinas and slipways
Oiu sadama slipp, Oiu sadam, Tarvastu sadam, Jõesuu sadam, Ulge sadam and 3 more
- —ferry piers
- 8viewpoints
Jõesuu vaateraam, Jõesuu vaatetorn and 6 more
- 8hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Kuldne Rand Puhkemaja, Veldemani Puhkemaja, Vehendi motell, Järveveere Puhkekeskus, Jõesuu puhkeküla and 3 more
- —fishing spots
- 3restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Tartu Airport (TAY), 37 km in a straight line.
Car hire at TAY airport (Tartu)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 | -4.4 | -3.9 | 0.8 | 8.6 | 15.8 | 19.6 | 22.8 | 21.5 | 16.2 | 8.2 | 2.1 | -1.9 |
| 2020 | +7.2 | +6.0 | +2.9 | −0.7 | −2.4 | +3.1 | −2.0 | +0.3 | +1.2 | +2.8 | +2.9 | +0.3 |
| 2021 | −1.2 | −2.4 | +0.9 | −0.7 | −1.8 | +4.1 | +3.9 | −1.8 | −2.2 | +1.6 | +1.0 | −3.1 |
| 2022 | +2.7 | +3.4 | +0.4 | −1.0 | −2.1 | +2.1 | +0.1 | +3.4 | −2.3 | +2.2 | ±0.0 | −2.6 |
| 2023 | +1.9 | +2.4 | +0.9 | +1.6 | +0.3 | +2.4 | −0.9 | +2.0 | +3.6 | −0.6 | −1.3 | −2.4 |
| 2024 | −2.9 | +1.7 | +3.3 | +0.5 | +2.8 | +2.0 | +0.6 | +1.0 | +4.4 | +2.3 | +2.4 | +2.8 |
| 2025 | +4.5 | +0.8 | +4.0 | +1.4 | −1.9 | −1.5 | +0.6 | −1.7 | +1.7 | +0.5 | +1.2 | +3.0 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
RussiaAbout 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 (Q211516) · 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.
