Glacial lake · Chile
Calafquén Lake
Body of water
- Area
- 115km²
- Max depth
- 212m
- Average depth
- 59m
- Elevation
- 204m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 82km
- Volume
- 6.7km³
Calafquén Lake is a glacial lake in Chile. It covers 115 km². On average it is 59 m deep, and 212 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 204 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Calafquén Lake?
The water is warmest in February, around 20 °C at the surface, and coldest in August, around 8 °C. It rarely averages 20 °C, but it stays above 17 °C from December to March: brisk, refreshing swimming.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 24 °C on average in February and 9 °C in July. The driest month is January (33 mm of rain), the wettest June (176 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (53 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 | 19 | 20 | 24 | 9 | 33 | 5 | 11.1 | 7 |
| February | 20 | 20 | 24 | 10 | 33 | 5 | 10.0 | 7 |
| March | 19 | 20 | 21 | 8 | 50 | 8 | 8.0 | 6 |
| April | 16 | 18 | 16 | 6 | 75 | 12 | 5.4 | 6 |
| May | 13 | 15 | 13 | 4 | 130 | 15 | 3.3 | 7 |
| June | 10 | 12 | 10 | 3 | 176 | 19 | 2.1 | 7 |
| July | 9 | 10 | 9 | 2 | 164 | 18 | 2.8 | 7 |
| August | 8 | 9 | 10 | 3 | 142 | 17 | 3.6 | 7 |
| September | 9 | 10 | 13 | 3 | 89 | 13 | 5.8 | 6 |
| October | 12 | 13 | 15 | 5 | 86 | 12 | 6.8 | 6 |
| November | 15 | 16 | 17 | 6 | 65 | 10 | 8.3 | 6 |
| December | 18 | 19 | 21 | 8 | 49 | 8 | 10.1 | 7 |
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 5.2 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 750 km² of land.
- About 41 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Calafquén Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 19beaches and swimming spots
Playa Chica, Playa Coñaripe, Playa Pucura, Playa Foresta, La Lava and 14 more
- 21campsites
EcoCamping Ñisoleufú, Camping, Camping Coñaripe, Camping Prado Verde, Camping La Esperanza and 16 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- 1ferry piers
- 11viewpoints
Mirador Ñisoleufu, Mirador Pilinhue, Isla Condorito, Azkintuwe Challupen, Azkintuwe Chiwaiko and 6 more
- 26hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Camahueto, Hotel Coñaripe, Cabañas Los Hualles, Holstal Holman, Los Pinos and 21 more
- —fishing spots
- 33restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Pichoy Airport (ZAL), 76 km in a straight line.
Car hire at ZAL airport (Valdivia)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 | 23.7 | 24.2 | 21.3 | 16.4 | 12.7 | 9.7 | 9.1 | 10.3 | 12.7 | 14.8 | 17.3 | 20.7 |
| 2020 | +1.9 | +0.6 | +2.5 | +1.4 | +0.9 | −0.9 | −0.8 | −0.6 | +0.2 | +0.9 | +1.1 | −0.1 |
| 2021 | +0.6 | +3.3 | +3.6 | +1.5 | +0.8 | +0.3 | +0.7 | +0.6 | +0.7 | +1.4 | +2.8 | +6.4 |
| 2022 | +1.4 | +2.3 | −0.7 | −1.6 | −0.1 | −0.2 | −1.0 | +0.2 | +0.1 | +1.5 | +7.1 | +5.0 |
| 2023 | +3.8 | +3.3 | +1.4 | +2.9 | +1.7 | +1.8 | +0.7 | +0.1 | −1.1 | +0.3 | −0.3 | +4.5 |
| 2024 | +5.1 | +4.4 | +0.1 | −0.3 | −2.4 | +0.3 | +0.2 | +0.7 | −1.8 | +4.0 | +0.7 | +3.7 |
| 2025 | +3.4 | +1.0 | +0.3 | −0.9 | −1.6 | −0.5 | +1.7 | +1.8 | +0.6 | +0.2 | +2.2 | +1.1 |
+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 (Q1800379) · 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.
