Lake · Kyrgyzstan
Song Kol Lake
Soŋ-Köl
Lake in Kyrgyzstan
- Area
- 275km²
- Max depth
- 15m
- Average depth
- 6.5m
- Elevation
- 3,011m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 82km
- Volume
- 1.8km³
Song Kol Lake is a lake in Kyrgyzstan. It covers 275 km². On average it is 6.5 m deep, and 15 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 3,011 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Song Kol Lake?
The water is warmest in August, around 15 °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 181 days a year, from around 31 October to 29 April.
On the shore, afternoons reach 20 °C on average in August and -9 °C in January. The driest month is September (15 mm of rain), the wettest April (52 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (77 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 | — | -9 | -21 | 17 | 5 | 6.3 | 10 |
| February | Ice | — | -6 | -18 | 24 | 6 | 7.2 | 10 |
| March | Ice | — | 0 | -10 | 36 | 8 | 7.6 | 11 |
| April | Ice | — | 7 | -4 | 52 | 10 | 7.2 | 11 |
| May | 4 | 7 | 12 | 0 | 48 | 11 | 8.7 | 10 |
| June | 9 | 12 | 16 | 3 | 38 | 10 | 9.3 | 10 |
| July | 14 | 15 | 20 | 5 | 25 | 7 | 9.9 | 10 |
| August | 15 | 16 | 20 | 5 | 17 | 4 | 10.1 | 10 |
| September | 13 | 15 | 15 | 0 | 15 | 3 | 9.0 | 10 |
| October | 5 | 10 | 6 | -5 | 29 | 6 | 6.6 | 11 |
| November | Ice | — | -1 | -11 | 29 | 7 | 5.1 | 10 |
| December | Ice | — | -7 | -18 | 24 | 6 | 5.5 | 10 |
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 16 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 1,043 km² of land.
- About 3.6 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Song Kol Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 39campsites
CBT Kochkor Yurt Camp, Yurt Camp, Ak-Sai Yurts Camp, Second yurt camp, near yurt Joki and 34 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 2viewpoints
- 20hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Shepherd's Life yurt camp, "Yurt Camp Baiysh"18$,hot sauna ., Camp de yourte de Soloman, Song Kol Ordo yurt camp, Song Kol lake "Tilek Yurt camp" and 15 more
- —fishing spots
- —restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Manas International Airport (BSZ), 145 km in a straight line.
Car hire at ALA airport (Almaty)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 | -8.7 | -6.2 | 0.4 | 7.1 | 11.9 | 16.0 | 19.5 | 19.7 | 14.6 | 6.4 | -1.0 | -7.1 |
| 2020 | −0.6 | +2.3 | +1.0 | +1.2 | +1.4 | −0.6 | −1.5 | −0.8 | −1.9 | −1.7 | −1.4 | −2.5 |
| 2021 | −0.2 | +2.2 | −1.5 | −1.1 | +1.1 | ±0.0 | +0.7 | −1.5 | +2.9 | −1.7 | −2.5 | +0.1 |
| 2022 | +1.4 | −1.0 | −1.3 | +0.9 | +0.4 | −0.6 | +1.3 | −1.0 | +3.0 | +0.4 | −1.1 | −1.9 |
| 2023 | −1.4 | +1.1 | +1.3 | −0.6 | −0.7 | +1.5 | +1.6 | +0.1 | −0.7 | +2.0 | +4.7 | +4.1 |
| 2024 | +4.6 | −0.2 | −1.8 | −0.1 | +1.8 | +1.0 | +0.1 | +1.6 | +0.5 | +0.4 | +0.1 | −1.5 |
| 2025 | +1.5 | +2.4 | +0.8 | +2.9 | +4.5 | +3.5 | +3.5 | +1.1 | +1.3 | +1.6 | +2.5 | +3.1 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
Kyrgyzstan152 km² · 136 km away13°maxIssyk-KulKyrgyzstan6,196 km² · 195 km away20°maxToktogul ReservoirKyrgyzstan223 km² · 188 km away25°maxSayran Lake
Kazakhstan0.3 km² · 211 km awayLake Sary-ChelekKyrgyzstan4.8 km² · 262 km away19°maxKapchagay ReservoirKazakhstan1,206 km² · 291 km away24°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 (Q2298945) · 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.
