Glacial lake · Argentina
Argentino Lake
Glacial lake in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Argentina
- Area
- 1,320km²
- Max depth
- 150m
- Average depth
- 167m
- Elevation
- 179m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 687km
- Volume
- 220km³
Argentino Lake is a glacial lake in Argentina. It covers 1,320 km². On average it is 167 m deep, and 150 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 179 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Argentino Lake?
The water is warmest in March, around 10 °C at the surface, and coldest in August, around 5 °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 14 °C on average in February and 0 °C in July. The driest month is September (34 mm of rain), the wettest May (56 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (144 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 | 9 | 10 | 14 | 5 | 47 | 11 | 8.6 | 26 |
| February | 10 | 10 | 14 | 5 | 42 | 10 | 7.9 | 23 |
| March | 10 | 10 | 11 | 4 | 52 | 12 | 6.2 | 22 |
| April | 10 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 51 | 12 | 4.8 | 20 |
| May | 8 | 9 | 4 | -2 | 56 | 12 | 3.8 | 15 |
| June | 7 | 7 | 0 | -5 | 52 | 12 | 2.9 | 15 |
| July | 6 | 6 | 0 | -6 | 46 | 12 | 3.7 | 14 |
| August | 5 | 5 | 2 | -4 | 47 | 11 | 5.1 | 16 |
| September | 5 | 5 | 6 | -1 | 34 | 9 | 6.0 | 19 |
| October | 6 | 6 | 9 | 1 | 38 | 10 | 7.1 | 23 |
| November | 6 | 7 | 11 | 3 | 39 | 10 | 8.4 | 26 |
| December | 8 | 8 | 13 | 4 | 47 | 12 | 8.3 | 26 |
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 33 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 9,811 km² of land.
- About 210 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 5.3 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Argentino Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 4beaches and swimming spots
- 10campsites
Camping El Niriguao, Free Camping, Camping Amsa, Camping Vial, Cambalache and 5 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- 8ferry piers
Pier Cruz del Sur, Muelle Refugio Spegazzini, Puerto La Soledad, Puesto Las Vacas and 4 more
- 24viewpoints
Segundo Balcón, Primer Balcón, Balcón norte, Balcón Inferior, Mirador 1 and 19 more
- 103hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Hostería Schilling, Los Dos Pinos, Hosteria Posta Sur, Kosten Aike, Newenkelen and 98 more
- —fishing spots
- 86restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- El Calafate22,844 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: El Calafate - Commander Armando Tola International Airport (FTE), 31 km in a straight line.
Car hire at FTE airport (El Calafate)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 | 13.5 | 13.7 | 11.3 | 8.0 | 3.7 | 0.3 | -0.1 | 2.0 | 5.7 | 8.6 | 10.6 | 12.6 |
| 2020 | +0.1 | +1.0 | +2.1 | +1.6 | +1.9 | −0.6 | −3.5 | ±0.0 | +0.3 | +0.8 | +2.0 | +0.4 |
| 2021 | +0.3 | +3.2 | +1.7 | +2.2 | +0.8 | +0.5 | +2.8 | +1.8 | +1.7 | +0.6 | +1.7 | +2.5 |
| 2022 | +1.0 | +1.1 | −0.4 | −0.7 | +0.4 | +0.8 | −1.4 | +0.5 | +1.1 | +0.8 | +3.3 | +0.9 |
| 2023 | +2.2 | −0.2 | −1.3 | +0.2 | +1.8 | +0.5 | −2.2 | +0.9 | −1.6 | −0.2 | −0.6 | +1.2 |
| 2024 | +1.7 | +1.8 | −0.8 | −0.5 | −2.8 | −2.7 | +0.6 | +0.9 | −1.2 | +1.3 | +1.5 | +1.4 |
| 2025 | +1.3 | −1.9 | −0.1 | +0.5 | ±0.0 | +0.3 | +0.8 | +0.9 | +1.5 | ±0.0 | +2.4 | ±0.0 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
Argentina1,193 km² · 64 km away11°maxO'Higgins/San Martín Lake
Chile1,010 km² · 124 km away10°maxDel Toro LakeChile190 km² · 109 km away9°maxCardiel LakeArgentina349 km² · 172 km away13°maxLaguna del CarbónArgentina6.1 km² · 305 km awayCochrane/Pueyrredón LakeChile299 km² · 326 km away12°maxAbout 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 (Q753898) · 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.
