Lake · Mongolia
Khyargas Nuur
Lake in Uvs Province, Mongolia
- Area
- 1,383km²
- Max depth
- 80m
- Average depth
- 54m
- Elevation
- 1,029m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 252km
- Volume
- 75.2km³
Khyargas Nuur is a lake in Mongolia. It covers 1,383 km². On average it is 54 m deep, and 80 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 1,029 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Khyargas Nuur?
The water is warmest in August, around 18 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. It rarely averages 20 °C, but it stays above 17 °C from July to August: brisk, refreshing swimming.
The lake usually freezes over for about 147 days a year, from around 20 November to 15 April.
On the shore, afternoons reach 28 °C on average in July and -14 °C in January. The driest month is January (2 mm of rain), the wettest July (37 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (217 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 | — | -14 | -23 | 2 | 0 | 4.1 | 9 |
| February | Ice | — | -9 | -20 | 3 | 0 | 6.1 | 10 |
| March | Ice | — | 2 | -9 | 4 | 1 | 7.3 | 13 |
| April | Ice | — | 12 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 9.6 | 15 |
| May | 7 | 10 | 19 | 7 | 12 | 3 | 11.4 | 17 |
| June | 14 | 16 | 26 | 14 | 23 | 6 | 11.4 | 14 |
| July | 18 | 18 | 28 | 17 | 37 | 9 | 10.6 | 13 |
| August | 18 | 18 | 25 | 14 | 27 | 7 | 9.9 | 13 |
| September | 15 | 17 | 18 | 7 | 11 | 3 | 9.4 | 13 |
| October | 10 | 13 | 8 | -1 | 6 | 2 | 7.2 | 12 |
| November | 2 | 6 | -3 | -12 | 5 | 1 | 3.8 | 10 |
| December | Ice | — | -12 | -20 | 4 | 0 | 2.6 | 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 43 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 146,785 km² of land.
- About 55 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Khyargas Nuur
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 5campsites
Khetsuu khad, Khar termes, Khyargas Family Resort
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 4viewpoints
Hetsuu Khad
- 4hotels, B&Bs and chalets
- —fishing spots
- 2restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Ulaangom Airport (ULO), 132 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 | -14.3 | -9.0 | 2.4 | 12.3 | 19.1 | 25.7 | 27.5 | 24.8 | 17.9 | 8.4 | -2.6 | -12.5 |
| 2020 | +2.4 | +2.7 | +0.3 | +4.0 | +1.9 | −1.4 | −1.7 | −3.0 | −1.2 | −2.6 | +0.6 | −1.7 |
| 2021 | +1.4 | +6.2 | +1.3 | −1.8 | −1.1 | −2.1 | +0.6 | −1.5 | +0.3 | −0.9 | −0.2 | +2.4 |
| 2022 | +2.2 | −1.3 | −0.2 | −0.6 | +3.1 | +1.8 | −1.9 | −1.3 | +2.6 | −2.1 | −0.8 | −2.2 |
| 2023 | +2.4 | +2.0 | +2.6 | −3.7 | −4.6 | +0.5 | +0.7 | +2.1 | −0.5 | +3.4 | −0.5 | −1.2 |
| 2024 | +1.7 | −2.8 | +0.1 | ±0.0 | +4.0 | +0.6 | +1.3 | +3.7 | −0.7 | +1.5 | +1.3 | ±0.0 |
| 2025 | +3.1 | +1.4 | −1.1 | +2.2 | +0.6 | +1.8 | +1.0 | +0.2 | −0.7 | −4.2 | +0.3 | +2.5 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
RussiaAbout 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 (Q1125601) · 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.
