Lake · Djibouti
Lake Assal
Crater lake in Djibouti
- Area
- 64.4km²
- Max depth
- 20m
- Average depth
- 11m
- Elevation
- -154m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 40km
- Volume
- 0.695km³
Lake Assal is a lake in Djibouti. It covers 64.4 km². On average it is 11 m deep, and 20 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 154 m below sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Assal?
The water is warmest in August, around 33 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 26 °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 40 °C on average in June and 29 °C in January. The driest month is January (6 mm of rain), the wettest April (55 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (123 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 | 26 | 26 | 29 | 18 | 6 | 2 | 8.4 | 22 |
| February | 27 | 28 | 30 | 18 | 7 | 2 | 9.1 | 23 |
| March | 28 | 29 | 32 | 20 | 24 | 7 | 9.5 | 21 |
| April | 30 | 31 | 34 | 22 | 55 | 11 | 9.8 | 19 |
| May | 32 | 32 | 38 | 25 | 28 | 8 | 10.0 | 13 |
| June | 33 | 33 | 40 | 28 | 7 | 2 | 9.4 | 14 |
| July | 33 | 33 | 39 | 28 | 33 | 10 | 8.5 | 17 |
| August | 33 | 33 | 38 | 27 | 50 | 13 | 8.6 | 16 |
| September | 33 | 33 | 38 | 27 | 39 | 8 | 8.6 | 12 |
| October | 31 | 32 | 34 | 22 | 20 | 5 | 9.8 | 17 |
| November | 29 | 30 | 31 | 20 | 10 | 3 | 9.6 | 20 |
| December | 27 | 28 | 29 | 18 | 14 | 3 | 9.0 | 21 |
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
- Its catchment drains 2,877 km² of land.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Assal
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
- —viewpoints
- —hotels, B&Bs and chalets
- —fishing spots
- —restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Djibouti-Ambouli Airport (JIB), 82 km in a straight line.
Car hire at JIB airport (Djibouti City)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Photos
Seen by visitors
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 | 28.9 | 30.1 | 32.3 | 34.0 | 37.5 | 40.5 | 39.0 | 37.8 | 37.8 | 34.2 | 31.2 | 29.2 |
| 2020 | −0.2 | +0.1 | +0.2 | −1.0 | +0.3 | −0.4 | −1.6 | −0.6 | −0.2 | +1.8 | −0.1 | +0.6 |
| 2021 | −0.6 | +0.1 | +0.3 | +0.2 | +0.8 | −0.2 | −2.6 | −0.6 | +0.7 | +1.3 | +1.5 | −0.2 |
| 2022 | ±0.0 | +0.6 | +0.4 | +1.1 | +2.2 | +0.1 | −2.1 | −2.8 | −0.1 | +0.8 | +0.4 | +0.6 |
| 2023 | +0.1 | +1.1 | −1.3 | −1.1 | −1.8 | −1.3 | +2.6 | +2.3 | +2.4 | ±0.0 | +0.2 | +1.0 |
| 2024 | +1.3 | +1.8 | +0.8 | +0.3 | +0.2 | +1.5 | −0.2 | −2.9 | +0.8 | +0.8 | +0.5 | +0.9 |
| 2025 | +0.1 | −0.1 | ±0.0 | +1.9 | +2.3 | +1.7 | +2.1 | −1.6 | −0.2 | +1.3 | +0.3 | +0.6 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
EthiopiaAbout 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 (Q81239) · 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.
