Salt lake · United States
Salton Sea
Saline lake in Imperial and Riverside counties in California, United States
- Area
- 957km²
- Max depth
- 15m
- Average depth
- 8.9m
- Elevation
- -71m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 202km
- Volume
- 8.6km³
Salton Sea is a salt lake in United States. It covers 957 km². On average it is 8.9 m deep, and 15 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 71 m below sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Salton Sea?
The water is warmest in August, around 31 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 14 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from April to October: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 43 °C on average in July and 19 °C in December. The driest month is June (0 mm of rain), the wettest February (19 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (133 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 | 14 | 14 | 20 | 8 | 15 | 4 | 7.9 | 11 |
| February | 15 | 17 | 22 | 9 | 19 | 4 | 8.9 | 11 |
| March | 18 | 20 | 26 | 12 | 10 | 3 | 10.5 | 13 |
| April | 22 | 23 | 30 | 14 | 5 | 2 | 12.0 | 16 |
| May | 24 | 26 | 34 | 17 | 2 | 1 | 13.3 | 16 |
| June | 27 | 29 | 40 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 13.9 | 16 |
| July | 30 | 31 | 43 | 27 | 5 | 1 | 12.4 | 14 |
| August | 31 | 31 | 42 | 27 | 7 | 2 | 11.9 | 12 |
| September | 30 | 31 | 39 | 24 | 6 | 2 | 11.1 | 12 |
| October | 25 | 28 | 32 | 18 | 8 | 1 | 10.0 | 12 |
| November | 20 | 22 | 25 | 12 | 9 | 2 | 8.5 | 11 |
| December | 15 | 17 | 19 | 8 | 17 | 3 | 7.5 | 11 |
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 11 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 20,051 km² of land.
- About 25 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Salton Sea
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 10beaches and swimming spots
Betz Beach, Bombay Beach, Salton Beach, Sandy Beach, Sea View Beach and 5 more
- 6campsites
West Shores Marina & RV Park, Mecca Beach, Palm Beach Dispersed Camp, New Camp, Hike and Bike campsides in area and 1 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 3marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 4viewpoints
Photography Bird Hide
- 2hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Ray & Carol's Motel by The Sea, Sea & Sun Lodges-Motel
- —fishing spots
- 3restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Oasis6,890 people
- Salton City3,763 people
- Desert Shores1,104 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Imperial County Airport (IPL), 47 km in a straight line.
Car hire at PSP airport (Palm Springs)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap 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 | 19.8 | 21.9 | 26.0 | 29.7 | 34.5 | 40.5 | 42.9 | 42.4 | 38.9 | 31.9 | 24.9 | 19.0 |
| 2020 | +0.7 | +0.6 | −3.2 | −0.5 | +2.4 | −0.8 | +1.4 | +2.4 | +2.3 | +3.1 | +1.2 | +1.1 |
| 2021 | +0.3 | +0.5 | −1.6 | +2.6 | +0.7 | +2.1 | +0.2 | +0.3 | +1.0 | −1.5 | +3.8 | +1.4 |
| 2022 | +1.3 | +0.6 | +1.7 | +2.3 | +1.1 | +1.3 | −0.3 | −0.2 | −0.3 | +0.4 | −2.5 | +0.8 |
| 2023 | −1.7 | −2.3 | −3.2 | +1.6 | −1.0 | −3.7 | +2.4 | −0.2 | −2.3 | +1.4 | +0.5 | +2.4 |
| 2024 | −0.1 | −0.7 | −1.9 | +0.2 | +0.4 | +1.5 | +2.8 | +0.9 | +1.3 | +4.0 | −1.2 | +4.3 |
| 2025 | +0.1 | +3.6 | −0.6 | +0.4 | +0.6 | +0.5 | −0.2 | +1.1 | −1.8 | +0.4 | +1.8 | +3.7 |
+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 (Q503301) · 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.
