Lake · Chile · Argentina
Lake General Carrera/Buenos Aires
Lake in Patagonia, between Argentina and Chile
- Area
- 1,764km²
- Max depth
- 590m
- Average depth
- 400m
- Elevation
- 202m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 707km
- Volume
- 706km³
Lake General Carrera/Buenos Aires is a lake in Chile. It covers 1,764 km². On average it is 400 m deep, and 590 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 202 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake General Carrera/Buenos Aires?
The water is warmest in February, around 13 °C at the surface, and coldest in September, around 8 °C. Even at its warmest, the surface stays below 17 °C on average: this is cold water.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 20 °C on average in February and 3 °C in July. The driest month is January (12 mm of rain), the wettest May (37 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (177 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 | 12 | 12 | 20 | 8 | 12 | 3 | 12.2 | 29 |
| February | 13 | 13 | 20 | 8 | 16 | 3 | 10.7 | 25 |
| March | 13 | 13 | 16 | 6 | 20 | 4 | 8.8 | 24 |
| April | 11 | 12 | 12 | 3 | 24 | 6 | 6.7 | 23 |
| May | 10 | 11 | 7 | 0 | 37 | 8 | 4.3 | 19 |
| June | 9 | 9 | 4 | -3 | 37 | 9 | 3.4 | 20 |
| July | 8 | 8 | 3 | -4 | 28 | 7 | 3.9 | 17 |
| August | 8 | 8 | 5 | -2 | 30 | 7 | 5.0 | 20 |
| September | 8 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 19 | 5 | 6.8 | 22 |
| October | 8 | 8 | 12 | 2 | 18 | 5 | 9.3 | 25 |
| November | 9 | 9 | 16 | 4 | 18 | 4 | 11.2 | 28 |
| December | 10 | 11 | 18 | 7 | 13 | 3 | 11.8 | 30 |
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 150 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 14,861 km² of land.
- About 149 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 4.8 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake General Carrera/Buenos Aires
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 31beaches and swimming spots
Playa Bahía Jara, Playa Mallín Grande, Playa Fachinal, Playa José González, Playa Las Ágatas and 26 more
- 39campsites
Camping Pudú, El Gaucho, Bush Camping, Camping Municipal, Bellavista: Hospedaje, Camping y Transporte and 34 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 7marinas and slipways
Puerto Tranquilo, Levicán and 5 more
- 11ferry piers
Embarcadero Chile Chico, Puerto Cristal, El Avellano, Levicán, Puerto Sánchez and 6 more
- 24viewpoints
Catedral de Marmol, Puerto Marmol, Cabeza de Perro, Vista Lago General Carrrera, Mirador Chile Chico and 19 more
- 103hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Terra Luna Lodge, Corazon de los Andes Lodge, Antigua Patagonia, La Paz, Los Pinos and 98 more
- —fishing spots
- 48restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Los Antiguos4,655 people
- Chile Chico2,500 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Perito Moreno Jalil Hamer Airport (PMQ), 43 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 | 19.9 | 20.2 | 16.4 | 11.9 | 7.2 | 3.6 | 2.9 | 5.2 | 9.0 | 12.5 | 15.8 | 18.5 |
| 2020 | +0.1 | −1.2 | +2.2 | +0.9 | +1.5 | −0.3 | −3.1 | −1.0 | +0.1 | +0.6 | +2.4 | +0.6 |
| 2021 | −0.3 | +3.8 | +2.3 | +1.5 | +1.1 | +0.5 | +2.6 | +1.6 | +1.9 | +0.8 | +2.1 | +4.9 |
| 2022 | +0.4 | +1.0 | −1.0 | −0.9 | −0.4 | −0.5 | −0.9 | +0.4 | +0.2 | +0.8 | +3.9 | +0.5 |
| 2023 | +1.3 | −1.0 | −1.3 | +0.4 | +1.0 | ±0.0 | ±0.0 | −0.4 | −1.3 | +0.3 | −1.7 | +1.9 |
| 2024 | +2.0 | +1.6 | −1.8 | −1.1 | −2.5 | −1.6 | +0.4 | +0.9 | −0.9 | +3.1 | −0.7 | +1.8 |
| 2025 | +0.9 | −2.7 | −0.3 | −0.5 | −1.1 | −0.5 | +1.0 | +0.9 | +1.1 | −1.2 | +2.7 | −1.0 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
Chile299 km² · 101 km away12°maxSan Rafael LagoonChile130 km² · 186 km away8°maxLake MustersArgentina411 km² · 216 km away16°maxPresidente Ríos LakeChile294 km² · 227 km away14°maxPalena/General Vintter LakeArgentina139 km² · 282 km away11°maxCardiel LakeArgentina349 km² · 276 km away13°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 (Q503842) · 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.
