Lake · El Salvador
Coatepeque Caldera
Lake in El Salvador
- Area
- 23.5km²
- Max depth
- 115m
- Average depth
- 46m
- Elevation
- 741m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 24km
- Volume
- 1.1km³
Coatepeque Caldera is a lake in El Salvador. It covers 23.5 km². On average it is 46 m deep, and 115 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 741 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Coatepeque Caldera?
The water is warmest in September, around 27 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 23 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from January to December: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 33 °C on average in April and 26 °C in November. The driest month is February (9 mm of rain), the wettest September (240 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 | 23 | 23 | 28 | 17 | 10 | 3 | 8.0 | 18 |
| February | 23 | 24 | 31 | 18 | 9 | 2 | 8.6 | 15 |
| March | 24 | 25 | 32 | 19 | 10 | 2 | 8.8 | 15 |
| April | 25 | 26 | 33 | 21 | 35 | 6 | 8.2 | 12 |
| May | 26 | 26 | 30 | 21 | 161 | 19 | 6.9 | 9 |
| June | 26 | 27 | 28 | 21 | 202 | 23 | 6.9 | 8 |
| July | 27 | 27 | 28 | 21 | 174 | 22 | 8.1 | 8 |
| August | 27 | 27 | 28 | 21 | 213 | 23 | 7.9 | 7 |
| September | 27 | 27 | 27 | 20 | 240 | 25 | 6.9 | 7 |
| October | 27 | 27 | 27 | 20 | 179 | 19 | 6.6 | 10 |
| November | 25 | 26 | 26 | 18 | 47 | 8 | 7.4 | 15 |
| December | 24 | 24 | 27 | 17 | 17 | 5 | 7.9 | 16 |
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 14 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 77 km² of land.
- About 2.4 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Coatepeque Caldera
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- —campsites
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 6viewpoints
- 5hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Hostel Nicole, Amacuilco Hostel, Silver Lake
- —fishing spots
- 7restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Ilopango International Airport (ILS), 50 km in a straight line.
Car hire at SAL airport (San Salvador)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 | 28.5 | 30.8 | 32.2 | 32.7 | 30.3 | 27.9 | 28.5 | 28.1 | 26.9 | 26.6 | 26.4 | 27.2 |
| 2020 | +0.6 | +0.8 | +1.1 | +0.8 | −0.2 | −0.6 | −0.7 | −0.9 | ±0.0 | +0.2 | −0.5 | −1.3 |
| 2021 | −1.8 | −2.7 | −2.8 | −3.8 | −0.9 | −1.2 | −0.7 | −0.8 | −0.1 | +0.6 | −0.7 | −0.7 |
| 2022 | −2.1 | −3.5 | −3.6 | −1.9 | −2.2 | −1.5 | −0.5 | −0.7 | −0.4 | +0.1 | +0.3 | −1.2 |
| 2023 | −1.9 | −2.4 | −1.4 | −0.5 | +1.9 | +2.0 | +1.1 | +0.9 | +2.2 | +0.2 | +1.0 | ±0.0 |
| 2024 | +0.3 | +0.1 | ±0.0 | −1.3 | +1.1 | −0.4 | ±0.0 | +0.7 | +0.7 | +0.6 | +0.3 | −0.9 |
| 2025 | −0.5 | −0.3 | +0.3 | +0.2 | +1.8 | +0.1 | +0.5 | +0.9 | +0.9 | +0.3 | +1.1 | +1.1 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
Guatemala
HondurasAbout 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 (Q3045228) · 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.
