Lake · China
Erhai Lake
Lake in Yunnan, People's Republic of China
- Area
- 242km²
- Average depth
- 40m
- Elevation
- 1,962m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 130km
- Volume
- 9.7km³
Erhai Lake is a lake in China. It covers 242 km². On average it is 40 m deep. Its surface lies 1,962 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 Erhai Lake?
The water is warmest in August, around 24 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 11 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from June to October: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 25 °C on average in June and 12 °C in January. The driest month is December (8 mm of rain), the wettest August (203 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (89 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 | 11 | 12 | 12 | -2 | 19 | 3 | 8.8 | 12 |
| February | 12 | 12 | 15 | -1 | 18 | 4 | 8.9 | 14 |
| March | 14 | 15 | 18 | 3 | 18 | 5 | 8.2 | 14 |
| April | 17 | 18 | 21 | 7 | 34 | 6 | 7.4 | 14 |
| May | 20 | 21 | 24 | 10 | 81 | 10 | 6.7 | 12 |
| June | 22 | 23 | 25 | 13 | 118 | 17 | 5.5 | 10 |
| July | 24 | 24 | 24 | 14 | 194 | 24 | 3.9 | 8 |
| August | 24 | 24 | 23 | 14 | 203 | 24 | 4.5 | 7 |
| September | 23 | 24 | 22 | 12 | 134 | 20 | 4.2 | 7 |
| October | 21 | 22 | 19 | 8 | 78 | 12 | 5.9 | 8 |
| November | 17 | 19 | 16 | 3 | 11 | 3 | 8.2 | 9 |
| December | 14 | 15 | 13 | -1 | 8 | 2 | 8.6 | 10 |
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 9.6 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 2,045 km² of land.
- About 32 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Erhai Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 4beaches and swimming spots
- 3campsites
Free camping
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 6marinas and slipways
- 12ferry piers
Taoyuan Pier and 11 more
- 27viewpoints
Walkbridge and 26 more
- 60hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Laojinhua Guesthouse, Purple Dragonfly, Villa Verde, Boutique Hotel, Dali Garden B&B, Jinduo Spring hôtel and 55 more
- —fishing spots
- 80restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Dali235,305 people
- Yinqiao Zhen28,002 people
- Haidong Zhen21,274 people
- Wanqiao Zhen20,784 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Dali Fengyi Airport (DLU), 22 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 | 12.3 | 15.0 | 18.2 | 21.2 | 23.7 | 24.7 | 23.7 | 23.2 | 21.6 | 19.0 | 15.8 | 12.9 |
| 2020 | −0.9 | −1.4 | +0.1 | −2.2 | −0.4 | +1.0 | +0.2 | −0.3 | +0.5 | +0.5 | +0.2 | −0.2 |
| 2021 | +0.2 | ±0.0 | +0.4 | +0.7 | +1.9 | +1.0 | +0.1 | −0.1 | +0.4 | +1.2 | +0.3 | +0.4 |
| 2022 | −1.3 | −2.7 | +2.2 | −0.6 | −1.5 | −0.8 | +0.5 | +0.8 | ±0.0 | +0.8 | +1.8 | −0.1 |
| 2023 | +1.4 | +0.9 | +0.5 | +1.7 | +1.3 | −0.1 | +1.1 | ±0.0 | +1.2 | +0.8 | ±0.0 | +0.2 |
| 2024 | −1.1 | −1.4 | +0.3 | +0.9 | −0.3 | +1.4 | +1.1 | +1.0 | +1.3 | +0.6 | −0.4 | +0.5 |
| 2025 | +0.5 | −0.5 | −0.3 | +0.6 | −1.6 | −1.0 | +0.1 | −0.4 | +0.5 | +0.8 | −0.6 | +0.2 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
MyanmarAbout 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 (Q83628) · 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.
