Lake · Ethiopia
Lake Chamo
Lake in southern Ethiopia
- Area
- 312km²
- Max depth
- 14m
- Average depth
- 27m
- Elevation
- 1,109m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 107km
- Volume
- 8.4km³
Lake Chamo is a lake in Ethiopia. It covers 312 km². On average it is 27 m deep, and 14 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 1,109 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Chamo?
The water is warmest in April, around 26 °C at the surface, and coldest in July, around 24 °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 February and 24 °C in June. The driest month is January (21 mm of rain), the wettest April (200 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (101 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 | 24 | 24 | 29 | 16 | 21 | 6 | 9.5 | 7 |
| February | 25 | 26 | 30 | 18 | 25 | 7 | 9.6 | 8 |
| March | 26 | 26 | 30 | 18 | 89 | 16 | 8.9 | 8 |
| April | 26 | 26 | 27 | 17 | 200 | 25 | 7.8 | 8 |
| May | 26 | 26 | 25 | 17 | 171 | 26 | 7.7 | 8 |
| June | 25 | 25 | 24 | 16 | 91 | 22 | 6.5 | 8 |
| July | 24 | 24 | 24 | 15 | 83 | 20 | 5.1 | 9 |
| August | 24 | 24 | 24 | 15 | 98 | 21 | 5.6 | 9 |
| September | 25 | 25 | 25 | 16 | 97 | 20 | 6.8 | 8 |
| October | 25 | 25 | 25 | 16 | 135 | 25 | 8.1 | 7 |
| November | 25 | 25 | 26 | 16 | 102 | 16 | 8.9 | 8 |
| December | 24 | 25 | 27 | 16 | 60 | 10 | 9.5 | 8 |
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 14 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 1,941 km² of land.
- About 18 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Chamo
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 1campsites
Nechisar Campsite #2
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 1viewpoints
Chamo Viewpoint
- —hotels, B&Bs and chalets
- —fishing spots
- 1restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Arba Minch Airport (AMH), 22 km in a straight line.
OpenStreetMap 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 | 28.8 | 30.5 | 29.9 | 26.7 | 24.6 | 23.8 | 23.9 | 24.5 | 25.4 | 25.2 | 26.0 | 27.2 |
| 2020 | −2.1 | −1.8 | −1.5 | −0.6 | −1.0 | −1.6 | −2.0 | −1.6 | −1.1 | −1.4 | −0.7 | −0.7 |
| 2021 | −3.2 | −2.1 | +0.7 | +0.1 | −1.2 | ±0.0 | −1.6 | +0.1 | −0.3 | +0.5 | +1.4 | +0.4 |
| 2022 | −0.2 | −0.2 | +0.5 | −0.3 | −0.5 | −0.7 | −0.8 | −0.1 | +0.7 | +0.1 | +1.5 | +1.3 |
| 2023 | +1.2 | +1.2 | −2.7 | −1.6 | −0.8 | −0.5 | −0.2 | +0.8 | +1.1 | +0.1 | −1.9 | −1.9 |
| 2024 | −1.9 | −1.0 | −0.2 | −1.1 | −0.4 | −0.4 | −1.3 | −1.2 | −0.1 | −0.2 | −0.8 | +0.1 |
| 2025 | +0.7 | +1.8 | −1.0 | −1.1 | −1.0 | −0.7 | −1.1 | −1.9 | −1.0 | −1.5 | −0.2 | +0.3 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
KenyaAbout 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 (Q1060962) · 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.
