Lake · Guatemala
Lake Petén Itzá
Lake
- Area
- 105km²
- Max depth
- 160m
- Average depth
- 32m
- Elevation
- 110m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 102km
- Volume
- 3.4km³
Lake Petén Itzá is a lake in Guatemala. It covers 105 km². On average it is 32 m deep, and 160 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 110 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Petén Itzá?
The water is warmest in September, around 29 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 25 °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 36 °C on average in April and 26 °C in December. The driest month is April (41 mm of rain), the wettest September (275 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (69 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 | 25 | 26 | 26 | 17 | 88 | 13 | 5.4 | 4 |
| February | 26 | 26 | 29 | 18 | 51 | 8 | 6.4 | 4 |
| March | 27 | 27 | 33 | 20 | 46 | 7 | 7.3 | 4 |
| April | 28 | 28 | 36 | 22 | 41 | 6 | 7.8 | 4 |
| May | 28 | 28 | 34 | 23 | 137 | 13 | 7.0 | 4 |
| June | 28 | 28 | 30 | 23 | 263 | 24 | 6.1 | 4 |
| July | 28 | 29 | 29 | 22 | 171 | 24 | 6.4 | 4 |
| August | 29 | 29 | 30 | 22 | 224 | 26 | 6.8 | 3 |
| September | 29 | 29 | 29 | 23 | 275 | 26 | 6.3 | 3 |
| October | 29 | 29 | 28 | 22 | 247 | 22 | 5.9 | 3 |
| November | 28 | 28 | 26 | 19 | 148 | 16 | 6.1 | 4 |
| December | 26 | 27 | 26 | 18 | 109 | 15 | 5.6 | 4 |
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 8.1 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 1,111 km² of land.
- About 13 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 2.8 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Petén Itzá
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 8beaches and swimming spots
Playa San Miguel, Playa Romelia, Playa Palmare, Playa El Pedregal, Playa El Chechenal "Patrimonio de los Peteneros" and 3 more
- 4campsites
Campamento Paraiso, Camping el paraiso
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- 10ferry piers
Embarcadero and 9 more
- 10viewpoints
El Mirador, Crocodile Mountain Vantage Point, Sunset place, Mirador moreletii, La Punta and 5 more
- 102hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Hotel Sabana, Hotel Casa Azul, Hospedaje Doña Gladys, Asociación Bioitza, Hotel Camino Real and 97 more
- —fishing spots
- 76restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- San Benito30,764 people
- Flores20,464 people
- San Andrés7,235 people
- San José1,201 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Mundo Maya International Airport (FRS), 10 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 | 26.5 | 29.3 | 32.9 | 35.8 | 34.5 | 29.8 | 29.3 | 29.6 | 28.7 | 27.7 | 26.4 | 26.2 |
| 2020 | +0.9 | +1.6 | +1.4 | +2.7 | −0.1 | −1.2 | −0.1 | −0.6 | −0.3 | −0.2 | +0.2 | −0.7 |
| 2021 | −0.5 | −1.0 | −0.6 | −0.4 | +0.1 | +0.5 | −0.2 | +0.4 | +0.2 | +0.9 | −0.1 | +1.5 |
| 2022 | +0.6 | −0.4 | −0.8 | −0.8 | −0.4 | −1.2 | −0.7 | −1.3 | −0.7 | +0.3 | +0.9 | ±0.0 |
| 2023 | +0.7 | +0.8 | +1.6 | +1.5 | +3.4 | +7.0 | +0.5 | +2.3 | +3.0 | +3.7 | +1.7 | −0.2 |
| 2024 | +1.9 | +1.6 | +4.5 | +2.0 | +5.5 | +2.2 | −0.2 | −0.4 | +0.7 | +0.2 | +1.0 | ±0.0 |
| 2025 | +0.6 | +0.6 | +1.7 | +0.2 | +4.1 | +2.2 | +2.5 | +3.8 | +1.4 | +0.6 | +0.5 | +0.5 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
Guatemala670 km² · 180 km away30°maxPunta Ycacos Lagoon
Belize5.5 km² · 150 km away29°maxFour Mile LagoonBelize1.5 km² · 213 km away29°maxFour Mile Lagoon, Río HondoBelize2.7 km² · 222 km away30°maxLago de AtitlánGuatemala123 km² · 294 km away24°maxLake AmatitlánGuatemala15.2 km² · 295 km away25°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 (Q1347461) · 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.
