Lake · Mongolia
Khövsgöl Lake
Rift lake
- Area
- 2,768km²
- Max depth
- 262m
- Average depth
- 139m
- Elevation
- 1,642m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 463km
- Volume
- 384km³
Khövsgöl Lake is a lake in Mongolia. It covers 2,768 km². On average it is 139 m deep, and 262 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 1,642 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Khövsgöl Lake?
The water is warmest in September, around 9 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. Even at its warmest, the surface stays below 17 °C on average: this is cold water.
The lake usually freezes over for about 177 days a year, from around 18 November to 13 May.
On the shore, afternoons reach 19 °C on average in July and -20 °C in January. The driest month is January (3 mm of rain), the wettest July (106 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (99 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 | Ice | — | -20 | -30 | 3 | 1 | 5.2 | 15 |
| February | Ice | — | -16 | -28 | 4 | 1 | 6.8 | 16 |
| March | Ice | — | -7 | -20 | 9 | 2 | 7.9 | 17 |
| April | Ice | — | 2 | -8 | 20 | 5 | 8.8 | 18 |
| May | 1 | 3 | 10 | -1 | 37 | 8 | 9.0 | 17 |
| June | 5 | 6 | 16 | 6 | 79 | 14 | 8.4 | 12 |
| July | 8 | 8 | 19 | 9 | 106 | 18 | 7.8 | 11 |
| August | 9 | 9 | 16 | 6 | 86 | 15 | 7.5 | 11 |
| September | 9 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 37 | 8 | 7.0 | 13 |
| October | 6 | 8 | 0 | -9 | 16 | 4 | 5.8 | 14 |
| November | 1 | 4 | -10 | -20 | 8 | 2 | 4.3 | 15 |
| December | Ice | — | -18 | -27 | 5 | 1 | 4.0 | 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 479 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 7,715 km² of land.
- About 25 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Khövsgöl Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 1beaches and swimming spots
- 93campsites
Ger Camp, Garage 24, Ancient, Toilogt Camp, Agartha and 88 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 2marinas and slipways
- 2ferry piers
- 7viewpoints
Magic Island, Ovoo and 5 more
- 38hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Last Frontier, Ohota tour, Captain's Cabin, Batbayar, Burenkhaan amraltiin gazar and 33 more
- —fishing spots
- 24restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Turt2,140 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Mörön Airport (MXV), 171 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 | -20.1 | -15.7 | -6.6 | 2.5 | 9.6 | 16.5 | 18.7 | 16.2 | 9.4 | 0.2 | -10.4 | -18.4 |
| 2020 | +2.2 | +3.6 | −0.2 | +3.5 | +0.6 | −2.0 | −0.7 | −1.7 | −0.5 | −1.7 | +1.1 | −2.8 |
| 2021 | −0.4 | +3.5 | +1.6 | −2.2 | −3.3 | −1.9 | −0.5 | −2.0 | −1.3 | −1.1 | +0.8 | +2.3 |
| 2022 | +2.3 | −0.6 | −1.5 | −1.5 | +2.1 | +0.4 | −3.1 | −2.1 | +1.3 | −1.6 | −1.8 | −3.4 |
| 2023 | −0.3 | +1.5 | +1.3 | −4.0 | −4.6 | +0.2 | −0.8 | +0.7 | −0.1 | +3.8 | −0.3 | ±0.0 |
| 2024 | +3.0 | −1.2 | +0.4 | −0.1 | +4.3 | +1.4 | +1.3 | +2.0 | −1.1 | +1.0 | +1.9 | +1.5 |
| 2025 | +3.5 | +0.9 | +0.6 | +2.1 | ±0.0 | +1.9 | +0.6 | +0.1 | −0.3 | −5.1 | +0.3 | +0.6 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
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 (Q192215) · 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.
