Crater lake · Ecuador
Cuicocha
Lake in Ecuador
- Area
- 3.7km²
- Average depth
- 34m
- Elevation
- 3,059m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 14km
- Volume
- 0.124km³
Cuicocha is a crater lake in Ecuador. It covers 3.7 km². On average it is 34 m deep. Its surface lies 3,059 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Cuicocha?
The water is warmest in April, around 17 °C at the surface, and coldest in July, around 17 °C. It rarely averages 20 °C, but it stays above 17 °C from December to April: brisk, refreshing swimming.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 19 °C on average in September and 18 °C in December. The driest month is August (26 mm of rain), the wettest April (148 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (46 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 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 9 | 104 | 21 | 3.0 | 8 |
| February | 17 | 17 | 18 | 9 | 105 | 21 | 2.6 | 7 |
| March | 17 | 17 | 18 | 9 | 132 | 24 | 2.7 | 7 |
| April | 17 | 17 | 18 | 9 | 148 | 24 | 3.3 | 7 |
| May | 17 | 17 | 18 | 8 | 108 | 21 | 3.4 | 8 |
| June | 17 | 17 | 18 | 7 | 59 | 14 | 3.6 | 12 |
| July | 17 | 17 | 18 | 7 | 40 | 10 | 3.7 | 13 |
| August | 17 | 17 | 18 | 7 | 26 | 8 | 3.7 | 14 |
| September | 17 | 17 | 19 | 7 | 40 | 10 | 3.5 | 11 |
| October | 17 | 17 | 18 | 8 | 81 | 18 | 3.3 | 8 |
| November | 17 | 17 | 18 | 9 | 103 | 19 | 3.2 | 7 |
| December | 17 | 17 | 18 | 9 | 98 | 19 | 2.8 | 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 4.1 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 28 km² of land.
- About 1.0 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Cuicocha
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 3campsites
Spot de camping, Ukshapungo, Free camping spot (check before weather and wind!)
- 1boat hire and water-sport clubs
Lancha
- —marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 10viewpoints
El Arrayan, Vladi mirador, Mirador and 7 more
- 3hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Los Pinos, Laguna Cuicocha, Sara Lodge
- —fishing spots
- 5restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Mariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO), 47 km in a straight line.
OpenStreetMap 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 | 17.9 | 17.9 | 17.9 | 18.1 | 18.3 | 17.8 | 17.8 | 18.4 | 19.0 | 18.5 | 17.9 | 17.7 |
| 2020 | +0.4 | +1.1 | +0.5 | +0.5 | +0.5 | +0.2 | ±0.0 | +0.4 | ±0.0 | +0.8 | +0.4 | −0.3 |
| 2021 | −0.6 | −0.2 | −1.2 | −0.4 | −0.3 | −0.3 | −0.4 | −0.6 | −0.8 | +0.1 | −0.8 | ±0.0 |
| 2022 | −0.4 | −0.6 | −1.1 | −0.4 | −0.2 | −0.7 | −0.4 | −0.5 | −0.4 | −0.7 | ±0.0 | −0.3 |
| 2023 | −1.2 | +0.3 | −0.7 | −0.4 | +0.3 | +0.2 | +0.1 | −0.1 | +0.3 | +0.6 | +0.8 | +1.0 |
| 2024 | +1.5 | +1.2 | +1.6 | +0.7 | +0.9 | +0.5 | +0.1 | +0.2 | +0.4 | +1.0 | +0.1 | +0.6 |
| 2025 | −0.1 | −0.2 | −0.6 | −0.1 | −0.4 | −0.5 | −0.6 | −0.5 | −0.3 | −0.6 | +0.1 | +0.4 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
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 (Q1143300) · 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.
