Reservoir · Panama
Gatun Lake
Artificial lake forming part of Panama Canal
- Area
- 333km²
- Average depth
- 1.6m
- Elevation
- 28m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 901km
- Volume
- 0.544km³
Gatun Lake is a reservoir in Panama. It covers 333 km². On average it is 1.6 m deep. Its surface lies 28 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Gatun Lake?
The water is warmest in August, around 28 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 27 °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 April and 28 °C in November. The driest month is February (9 mm of rain), the wettest October (257 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (62 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 | 27 | 27 | 28 | 24 | 18 | 4 | 6.6 | 14 |
| February | 27 | 27 | 29 | 24 | 9 | 2 | 6.8 | 15 |
| March | 27 | 27 | 30 | 24 | 15 | 3 | 6.3 | 15 |
| April | 27 | 28 | 31 | 24 | 98 | 11 | 5.7 | 13 |
| May | 28 | 28 | 30 | 25 | 245 | 24 | 4.3 | 8 |
| June | 28 | 28 | 29 | 25 | 239 | 27 | 3.9 | 7 |
| July | 28 | 28 | 28 | 25 | 208 | 27 | 3.6 | 7 |
| August | 28 | 28 | 28 | 25 | 224 | 27 | 3.6 | 7 |
| September | 28 | 28 | 28 | 25 | 248 | 26 | 4.0 | 6 |
| October | 28 | 28 | 28 | 24 | 257 | 27 | 4.3 | 7 |
| November | 28 | 28 | 28 | 24 | 251 | 26 | 3.7 | 8 |
| December | 27 | 28 | 28 | 24 | 100 | 14 | 5.5 | 11 |
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 45 days before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 3,352 km² of land.
- About 140 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 13.9 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Gatun Lake
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
- 1viewpoints
Vista Panorámica Esclusas Agua Clara
- 1hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Meliá Panama Canal Hotel
- —fishing spots
- 1restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Cativá29,607 people
- Sabanitas15,577 people
- Margarita3,302 people
- Santa Rita Arriba1,960 people
- Escobal1,790 people
- Río Rita1,222 people
- Mendoza729 people
- La Arenosa319 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Enrique Adolfo Jimenez Airport (ONX), 19 km in a straight line.
Car hire at BLB airport (Panamá City)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 | 28.2 | 29.4 | 30.4 | 30.9 | 29.6 | 28.7 | 28.3 | 28.4 | 28.4 | 28.2 | 27.9 | 28.1 |
| 2020 | +0.5 | +0.5 | +0.2 | +0.1 | +0.2 | +0.2 | ±0.0 | +0.2 | +0.3 | +0.3 | +0.1 | ±0.0 |
| 2021 | −0.2 | −0.3 | −0.4 | −1.1 | −0.3 | ±0.0 | +0.2 | −0.1 | +0.4 | +0.3 | +0.3 | +0.3 |
| 2022 | ±0.0 | +0.4 | +0.3 | −0.8 | −0.6 | −0.7 | +0.1 | −0.2 | +0.3 | +0.1 | ±0.0 | +0.4 |
| 2023 | +0.2 | +0.2 | +0.4 | +0.7 | +1.7 | +1.7 | +1.6 | +1.4 | +1.6 | +1.4 | +0.9 | +1.3 |
| 2024 | +1.5 | +0.9 | +1.6 | +1.0 | +1.0 | +0.8 | +0.9 | +0.7 | +0.9 | +0.7 | +0.4 | +0.5 |
| 2025 | +0.4 | −0.5 | ±0.0 | +0.1 | −0.3 | +0.1 | +0.4 | +0.3 | +0.7 | +0.4 | ±0.0 | +0.1 |
+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 (Q313637) · 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.
