Lake · Mexico
Lake Pátzcuaro
Lake in Mexico
- Area
- 77.0km²
- Max depth
- 12m
- Average depth
- 12m
- Elevation
- 2,037m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 84km
- Volume
- 0.894km³
Lake Pátzcuaro is a lake in Mexico. It covers 77.0 km². On average it is 12 m deep, and 12 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 2,037 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Pátzcuaro?
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 30 °C on average in May and 22 °C in January. The driest month is April (3 mm of rain), the wettest July (168 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (115 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 | 19 | 22 | 9 | 9 | 2 | 8.5 | 8 |
| February | 19 | 20 | 24 | 10 | 16 | 1 | 9.5 | 8 |
| March | 21 | 22 | 27 | 11 | 11 | 1 | 10.4 | 9 |
| April | 23 | 24 | 29 | 13 | 3 | 1 | 10.8 | 9 |
| May | 24 | 24 | 30 | 15 | 31 | 7 | 9.5 | 9 |
| June | 25 | 25 | 27 | 15 | 116 | 20 | 7.4 | 8 |
| July | 25 | 25 | 24 | 15 | 168 | 27 | 7.0 | 7 |
| August | 24 | 24 | 24 | 15 | 163 | 26 | 7.1 | 7 |
| September | 24 | 24 | 24 | 14 | 146 | 24 | 6.3 | 8 |
| October | 22 | 23 | 24 | 13 | 60 | 12 | 7.5 | 8 |
| November | 20 | 21 | 23 | 11 | 17 | 3 | 8.6 | 8 |
| December | 19 | 19 | 22 | 9 | 6 | 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 3.0 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 942 km² of land.
- About 9.6 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 2.7 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Pátzcuaro
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 1campsites
Trailer Park El Pozo
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- 10ferry piers
Muelle No. 1, Muelle General, Muelle San Pedrito, Muelle Erongarícuaro, Muelle Janitzio and 5 more
- 5viewpoints
- 13hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Hotel Colibri, Hotel Colibri 250 mxn, Villa Patzcuaro Hotel & RV Park, Estrella, cabañas and 8 more
- —fishing spots
- 9restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Quiroga14,669 people
- Santa Fe de la Laguna4,879 people
- Ihuatzio3,575 people
- Tzintzuntzan3,534 people
- Jarácuaro2,817 people
- Erongarícuaro2,573 people
- Janitzio2,458 people
- San Andrés Ziróndaro2,302 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Uruapan - Licenciado y General Ignacio Lopez Rayon International Airport (UPN), 55 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 | 22.5 | 24.5 | 26.9 | 29.4 | 29.8 | 26.7 | 24.0 | 23.9 | 23.5 | 24.0 | 23.4 | 22.5 |
| 2020 | +0.4 | +1.0 | +2.1 | +1.4 | +1.2 | +1.9 | +1.1 | +0.7 | +0.8 | +1.3 | +2.2 | +0.4 |
| 2021 | +1.4 | +1.3 | +2.3 | +0.8 | ±0.0 | −1.3 | ±0.0 | −0.4 | ±0.0 | ±0.0 | +0.5 | +1.5 |
| 2022 | +1.1 | +0.7 | +1.1 | +1.3 | +2.1 | −0.7 | +0.3 | −0.1 | +1.3 | +0.9 | +1.9 | +1.1 |
| 2023 | +1.5 | +1.7 | +1.3 | +0.2 | +0.2 | +4.6 | +2.2 | +1.4 | +3.2 | +0.2 | +1.6 | −0.3 |
| 2024 | +0.6 | +1.7 | +2.0 | +1.3 | +4.0 | +3.3 | +1.1 | +0.1 | +0.2 | +1.1 | +1.7 | +1.0 |
| 2025 | +0.6 | +2.0 | +1.9 | +0.8 | +0.2 | −2.2 | −0.3 | +0.1 | +0.7 | +1.0 | +1.3 | +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 (Q1352646) · 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.
