Lake · Haiti · Dominican Republic
Étang Saumâtre
Lake of the Dominican Republic and Haiti
- Area
- 118km²
- Max depth
- 30m
- Average depth
- 30m
- Elevation
- 17m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 76km
- Volume
- 3.5km³
Étang Saumâtre is a lake in Haiti. It covers 118 km². On average it is 30 m deep, and 30 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 17 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 Étang Saumâtre?
The water is warmest in October, around 28 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 25 °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 31 °C on average in August and 28 °C in December. The driest month is February (17 mm of rain), the wettest October (76 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (206 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 | 25 | 26 | 28 | 18 | 19 | 4 | 8.1 | 10 |
| February | 25 | 26 | 29 | 18 | 17 | 3 | 8.6 | 10 |
| March | 26 | 26 | 30 | 19 | 26 | 5 | 8.4 | 9 |
| April | 26 | 27 | 31 | 20 | 40 | 5 | 8.0 | 9 |
| May | 27 | 27 | 30 | 21 | 64 | 8 | 7.5 | 10 |
| June | 27 | 27 | 30 | 22 | 41 | 6 | 8.3 | 12 |
| July | 27 | 27 | 31 | 22 | 38 | 4 | 9.0 | 12 |
| August | 28 | 28 | 31 | 22 | 66 | 6 | 8.5 | 11 |
| September | 28 | 28 | 31 | 22 | 45 | 8 | 7.9 | 8 |
| October | 28 | 28 | 30 | 22 | 76 | 9 | 7.1 | 8 |
| November | 27 | 28 | 29 | 20 | 62 | 7 | 7.4 | 8 |
| December | 26 | 27 | 28 | 19 | 28 | 4 | 8.0 | 9 |
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 12 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 917 km² of land.
- About 9.5 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Étang Saumâtre
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 1beaches and swimming spots
- —campsites
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- —viewpoints
- —hotels, B&Bs and chalets
- —fishing spots
- —restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Fond Parisien18,256 people
- Jimaní6,567 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Toussaint Louverture International Airport (PAP), 31 km in a straight line.
Car hire at PAP airport (Port-au-Prince)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 | 28.4 | 29.3 | 30.0 | 30.8 | 30.1 | 30.3 | 31.2 | 31.2 | 30.7 | 29.6 | 28.9 | 28.3 |
| 2020 | −0.1 | +0.4 | −0.3 | +2.0 | +1.3 | +2.0 | +1.5 | −1.6 | −0.3 | +0.1 | −2.2 | −2.0 |
| 2021 | −1.0 | −2.2 | −1.2 | −0.3 | +1.2 | −0.7 | −1.8 | −1.1 | −1.2 | −1.5 | −0.8 | −1.2 |
| 2022 | −0.9 | −0.5 | +0.3 | −1.4 | +0.5 | +1.2 | −0.1 | +0.7 | +0.5 | +1.2 | +1.5 | +0.8 |
| 2023 | +0.8 | +1.2 | +1.1 | −0.9 | +1.0 | +0.3 | +1.5 | +1.9 | +2.2 | +1.9 | +0.8 | −0.6 |
| 2024 | −0.2 | −0.3 | +2.0 | +1.4 | +1.7 | +0.1 | −0.3 | +0.1 | +1.0 | +0.7 | −1.2 | −1.9 |
| 2025 | −0.8 | ±0.0 | +0.4 | −0.2 | +1.1 | +1.1 | +1.6 | +2.0 | +0.5 | −1.6 | −2.0 | −1.1 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
Dominican Republic228 km² · 43 km away30°maxTrou CaïmanHaiti5.2 km² · 17 km away30°maxLake PéligreHaiti11.3 km² · 36 km away30°maxLake MiragoâneHaiti7.3 km² · 112 km away30°maxLago de OviedoDominican Republic26.7 km² · 112 km away28°maxLaguna RedondaDominican Republic6.7 km² · 326 km away28°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 (Q2722327) · 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.
