Lake · Mexico
Lake Chapala
Lake in Jalisco in Mexico
- Area
- 1,052km²
- Max depth
- 10m
- Average depth
- 7.5m
- Elevation
- 1,518m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 221km
- Volume
- 7.9km³
Lake Chapala is a lake in Mexico. It covers 1,052 km². On average it is 7.5 m deep, and 10 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 1,518 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Chapala?
The water is warmest in July, around 25 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 18 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from March to November: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 31 °C on average in May and 23 °C in January. The driest month is April (1 mm of rain), the wettest July (193 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (107 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 | 18 | 18 | 23 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 8.6 | 8 |
| February | 19 | 20 | 25 | 10 | 18 | 1 | 9.7 | 9 |
| March | 21 | 22 | 28 | 11 | 9 | 1 | 10.9 | 9 |
| April | 23 | 24 | 30 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 11.4 | 10 |
| May | 24 | 25 | 31 | 16 | 28 | 6 | 10.9 | 9 |
| June | 25 | 25 | 28 | 16 | 141 | 22 | 9.0 | 8 |
| July | 25 | 25 | 25 | 16 | 193 | 28 | 7.8 | 7 |
| August | 25 | 25 | 25 | 15 | 169 | 28 | 7.8 | 7 |
| September | 24 | 24 | 24 | 15 | 155 | 24 | 7.0 | 8 |
| October | 22 | 23 | 25 | 13 | 63 | 12 | 8.3 | 8 |
| November | 20 | 21 | 24 | 10 | 18 | 3 | 9.0 | 8 |
| December | 18 | 19 | 23 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 8.7 | 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 2.7 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 43,692 km² of land.
- About 93 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Chapala
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 7beaches and swimming spots
Mismaloya, La playa de Tizapán and 5 more
- 1campsites
RV Park
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 14marinas and slipways
Puerto Nuevo and 13 more
- —ferry piers
- 1viewpoints
Cerro de jamay
- 13hotels, B&Bs and chalets
La Cabaña De Yeyo, Belago, Hotel Villa Montecarlo, Hotel Real de Chapala, Hotel Las Palomas and 8 more
- —fishing spots
- 69restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Chapala21,596 people
- Jocotepec18,852 people
- Jamay17,204 people
- Tizapán el Alto14,877 people
- Ajijic11,439 people
- San Juan Cosalá6,973 people
- Cojumatlán de Régules6,763 people
- San Pedro Itzicán5,199 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Guadalajara International Airport (GDL), 59 km in a straight line.
Car hire at GDL airport (Guadalajara)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 | 22.7 | 24.8 | 27.5 | 30.4 | 31.4 | 28.1 | 24.9 | 24.8 | 24.4 | 24.8 | 24.1 | 22.9 |
| 2020 | +0.1 | +0.6 | +1.8 | +1.1 | +0.5 | +1.4 | +0.4 | +0.5 | +0.6 | +1.6 | +2.2 | +0.6 |
| 2021 | +1.5 | +1.6 | +2.7 | +1.1 | −0.2 | −1.2 | −0.1 | −0.4 | ±0.0 | ±0.0 | +0.7 | +2.0 |
| 2022 | +1.4 | +0.7 | +0.9 | +1.5 | +1.8 | −1.6 | +0.3 | −0.2 | +0.8 | +0.6 | +1.9 | +1.2 |
| 2023 | +1.6 | +1.7 | +1.7 | +0.2 | +0.1 | +5.5 | +2.5 | +1.4 | +2.8 | +0.2 | +1.9 | −0.8 |
| 2024 | +0.5 | +1.5 | +1.9 | +1.1 | +3.8 | +3.5 | +0.9 | −0.2 | +0.5 | +0.8 | +2.3 | +1.9 |
| 2025 | +1.0 | +2.4 | +2.1 | +0.9 | +0.6 | −2.0 | +0.1 | −0.1 | +0.8 | +0.8 | +1.4 | +1.5 |
+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 (Q318350) · 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.
