Lake · China
Namtso
Lake in Nagqu, Tibet, China
- Area
- 1,964km²
- Max depth
- 125m
- Average depth
- 44m
- Elevation
- 4,724m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 368km
- Volume
- 87.1km³
Namtso is a lake in China. It covers 1,964 km². On average it is 44 m deep, and 125 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 4,724 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The water
How warm is Namtso?
The water is warmest in August, around 12 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. Even at its warmest, the surface stays below 17 °C on average: this is cold water.
The lake usually freezes over for about 121 days a year, from around 6 January to 6 May.
On the shore, afternoons reach 14 °C on average in July and -6 °C in January. The driest month is December (1 mm of rain), the wettest July (151 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 | Ice | — | -6 | -21 | 2 | 1 | 8.9 | 20 |
| February | Ice | — | -4 | -19 | 2 | 0 | 9.2 | 21 |
| March | Ice | — | 0 | -13 | 5 | 1 | 9.1 | 19 |
| April | Ice | — | 3 | -7 | 10 | 3 | 9.3 | 18 |
| May | 1 | 3 | 8 | -4 | 39 | 10 | 10.4 | 15 |
| June | 6 | 8 | 14 | 0 | 91 | 18 | 10.6 | 13 |
| July | 10 | 11 | 14 | 2 | 151 | 22 | 9.7 | 12 |
| August | 12 | 12 | 13 | 1 | 125 | 22 | 9.4 | 11 |
| September | 11 | 12 | 10 | -2 | 63 | 15 | 8.7 | 12 |
| October | 8 | 10 | 4 | -6 | 12 | 3 | 9.6 | 14 |
| November | 5 | 7 | -1 | -14 | 2 | 0 | 9.6 | 17 |
| December | 2 | 3 | -5 | -20 | 1 | 0 | 9.5 | 19 |
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 142 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 10,741 km² of land.
- About 20 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Namtso
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- —campsites
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 4viewpoints
Holy Elephant Lookout
- —hotels, B&Bs and chalets
- —fishing spots
- —restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Lhasa Gonggar International Airport (LXA), 162 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 | -6.4 | -3.9 | -0.5 | 3.3 | 8.5 | 13.7 | 13.7 | 12.7 | 10.2 | 4.4 | -0.8 | -4.7 |
| 2020 | −1.5 | −1.8 | −0.6 | −2.2 | −2.1 | −1.4 | −0.2 | −0.1 | +1.5 | +3.9 | +0.2 | +0.7 |
| 2021 | +2.2 | +0.6 | +0.9 | −1.1 | +0.2 | −0.2 | ±0.0 | +0.1 | −0.8 | +2.7 | +0.9 | −0.6 |
| 2022 | −1.3 | −3.5 | +2.8 | +1.3 | +1.1 | +1.7 | +2.4 | +2.2 | +1.0 | +1.2 | +1.0 | +0.9 |
| 2023 | +2.3 | +1.1 | −0.6 | −0.5 | −1.4 | −0.1 | −0.3 | +0.5 | +1.2 | ±0.0 | +0.8 | −0.2 |
| 2024 | −1.2 | −1.4 | +1.0 | +0.1 | +0.5 | +1.7 | +0.6 | −0.3 | +1.9 | +1.8 | +1.5 | +1.4 |
| 2025 | +2.8 | +0.4 | +0.8 | +0.5 | +0.4 | −0.7 | +1.1 | +1.0 | +1.2 | +0.7 | +0.4 | +1.5 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
IndiaAbout 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 (Q651294) · 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.
