Lake · Kyrgyzstan
Lake Sary-Chelek
Lake in Kyrgyzstan
- Area
- 4.8km²
- Max depth
- 234m
- Average depth
- 40m
- Elevation
- 1,876m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 21km
- Volume
- 0.190km³
Lake Sary-Chelek is a lake in Kyrgyzstan. It covers 4.8 km². On average it is 40 m deep, and 234 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 1,876 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Sary-Chelek?
The water is warmest in July, around 19 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. It rarely averages 20 °C, but it stays above 17 °C from July to August: brisk, refreshing swimming.
The lake usually freezes over for about 75 days a year, from around 2 January to 17 March.
On the shore, afternoons reach 21 °C on average in July and -7 °C in January. The driest month is August (10 mm of rain), the wettest April (48 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (156 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 | Ice | — | -7 | -17 | 28 | 8 | 4.7 | 9 |
| February | Ice | — | -6 | -16 | 36 | 8 | 5.4 | 10 |
| March | Ice | — | 0 | -9 | 42 | 10 | 5.5 | 9 |
| April | 4 | 7 | 8 | -3 | 48 | 10 | 6.5 | 9 |
| May | 11 | 14 | 13 | 1 | 34 | 9 | 9.1 | 8 |
| June | 16 | 18 | 17 | 4 | 22 | 7 | 10.6 | 8 |
| July | 19 | 19 | 21 | 7 | 12 | 4 | 11.5 | 8 |
| August | 19 | 19 | 21 | 6 | 10 | 2 | 11.4 | 8 |
| September | 16 | 18 | 16 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 9.9 | 8 |
| October | 12 | 14 | 8 | -3 | 28 | 6 | 6.6 | 9 |
| November | 7 | 9 | 0 | -10 | 38 | 8 | 4.1 | 9 |
| December | 2 | 4 | -6 | -16 | 33 | 8 | 4.1 | 9 |
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 10 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 94 km² of land.
- About 0.6 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 2.6 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Sary-Chelek
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 1beaches and swimming spots
- 2campsites
campsite by the Yager house
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 3viewpoints
the best view on Sary Chelek lake
- —hotels, B&Bs and chalets
- —fishing spots
- —restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Namangan International Airport (NMA), 106 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 | -7.4 | -5.7 | 0.4 | 7.5 | 12.8 | 17.4 | 21.1 | 21.0 | 15.7 | 7.5 | -0.1 | -5.9 |
| 2020 | −1.0 | +2.5 | +2.5 | +0.3 | +0.7 | −0.3 | −1.3 | −1.3 | −1.8 | −1.5 | −2.9 | −2.6 |
| 2021 | +1.6 | +3.0 | −1.0 | −0.7 | +1.2 | +1.5 | +1.3 | −0.8 | +3.3 | −1.9 | +0.2 | +3.6 |
| 2022 | +2.2 | +0.3 | −0.2 | +3.5 | −0.1 | −0.3 | +0.8 | −1.3 | +2.8 | +0.2 | −0.9 | −0.2 |
| 2023 | −1.5 | +0.9 | +4.4 | +1.0 | +0.3 | +3.2 | +2.5 | −0.8 | −1.5 | +1.2 | +4.6 | +3.8 |
| 2024 | +2.5 | −0.7 | −1.0 | ±0.0 | +0.1 | +0.8 | −0.4 | +0.5 | ±0.0 | −0.4 | +0.4 | −0.7 |
| 2025 | +1.9 | +1.4 | +0.6 | +3.0 | +4.0 | +2.6 | +3.0 | +1.0 | +0.7 | +1.3 | +2.9 | +2.4 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
Kyrgyzstan223 km² · 74 km away25°maxCharvak Lake
Uzbekistan25.9 km² · 164 km away24°maxKayrakkum Reservoir
Tajikistan430 km² · 228 km away27°maxSong Kol LakeKyrgyzstan275 km² · 262 km away15°maxTuyabuguz ReservoirUzbekistan13.5 km² · 244 km away28°maxChatyr-KulKyrgyzstan152 km² · 313 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 (Q2119862) · 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.
