Crater lake · Guatemala
Lake Amatitlán
Crater lake in Guatemala Department
- Area
- 15.2km²
- Max depth
- 33m
- Average depth
- 29m
- Elevation
- 1,192m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 35km
- Volume
- 0.447km³
Lake Amatitlán is a crater lake in Guatemala. It covers 15.2 km². On average it is 29 m deep, and 33 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 1,192 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 Lake Amatitlán?
The water is warmest in June, around 25 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 22 °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 30 °C on average in April and 24 °C in November. The driest month is January (5 mm of rain), the wettest September (243 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (87 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 | 22 | 22 | 26 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 8.5 | 15 |
| February | 23 | 23 | 28 | 14 | 7 | 1 | 8.6 | 13 |
| March | 24 | 24 | 30 | 15 | 12 | 2 | 8.5 | 12 |
| April | 25 | 25 | 30 | 16 | 41 | 8 | 7.6 | 10 |
| May | 25 | 25 | 28 | 18 | 163 | 20 | 6.1 | 8 |
| June | 25 | 25 | 25 | 18 | 225 | 26 | 6.2 | 8 |
| July | 25 | 25 | 26 | 17 | 172 | 23 | 7.7 | 9 |
| August | 25 | 25 | 25 | 17 | 223 | 25 | 7.3 | 8 |
| September | 25 | 25 | 24 | 17 | 243 | 26 | 6.2 | 7 |
| October | 25 | 25 | 24 | 16 | 191 | 22 | 6.2 | 8 |
| November | 24 | 24 | 24 | 14 | 43 | 9 | 7.7 | 13 |
| December | 23 | 23 | 24 | 13 | 8 | 3 | 8.5 | 13 |
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 15 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 410 km² of land.
- About 12 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 2.5 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Amatitlán
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
- 4viewpoints
- 5hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Plantación de Tomate Extensa, Belay, Hotel Kawilal, AUTO HOTEL SEÚL, Auto Hotel Blanquita
- —fishing spots
- 5restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Petapa135,447 people
- Amatitlán71,836 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: La Aurora International Airport (GUA), 16 km in a straight line.
Car hire at GUA airport (Guatemala 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 | 25.5 | 27.8 | 29.5 | 30.2 | 27.7 | 25.4 | 25.5 | 25.3 | 24.5 | 24.4 | 24.1 | 24.4 |
| 2020 | −0.2 | +0.2 | +0.9 | +0.5 | −0.6 | −0.5 | −0.3 | −0.8 | +0.3 | −0.1 | −0.2 | −0.7 |
| 2021 | −1.4 | −1.8 | −1.1 | −1.4 | −0.6 | −0.5 | ±0.0 | −0.4 | +0.2 | +1.0 | −0.1 | +0.4 |
| 2022 | ±0.0 | −0.8 | −1.0 | −1.1 | −0.8 | −1.0 | +0.2 | −0.3 | +0.1 | +0.4 | +0.2 | −0.7 |
| 2023 | −0.7 | −0.9 | −0.6 | +0.7 | +3.0 | +2.7 | +1.8 | +1.6 | +2.0 | +0.6 | +0.7 | ±0.0 |
| 2024 | +1.6 | +1.1 | +1.9 | +0.7 | +2.8 | +0.2 | +0.7 | +1.3 | +0.9 | +0.6 | +0.6 | −0.1 |
| 2025 | +0.8 | +0.1 | +0.7 | +0.2 | +1.2 | −0.1 | +0.9 | +1.0 | +0.7 | +0.3 | +0.3 | −0.2 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
Guatemala123 km² · 76 km away24°maxLake Güija
El Salvador36.3 km² · 111 km away29°maxCoatepeque CalderaEl Salvador23.5 km² · 125 km away27°maxLake IlopangoEl Salvador69.3 km² · 183 km away29°maxLake IzabalGuatemala670 km² · 187 km away30°maxLake Yojoa
Honduras79.0 km² · 281 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 (Q258397) · 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.
