Lake · Taiwan
Sun Moon Lake
Largest lake in Taiwan
- Area
- 7.0km²
- Max depth
- 27m
- Average depth
- 22m
- Elevation
- 747m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 20km
- Volume
- 0.154km³
Sun Moon Lake is a lake in Taiwan. It covers 7.0 km². On average it is 22 m deep, and 27 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 747 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Sun Moon Lake?
The water is warmest in September, around 27 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 20 °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 30 °C on average in July and 21 °C in January. The driest month is December (42 mm of rain), the wettest August (329 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (86 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 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 12 | 49 | 8 | 3.1 | 11 |
| February | 20 | 21 | 23 | 14 | 45 | 10 | 2.8 | 11 |
| March | 21 | 22 | 24 | 16 | 82 | 12 | 3.1 | 11 |
| April | 23 | 24 | 27 | 19 | 115 | 12 | 3.6 | 10 |
| May | 24 | 25 | 29 | 22 | 256 | 17 | 4.7 | 10 |
| June | 26 | 26 | 29 | 23 | 312 | 19 | 5.9 | 12 |
| July | 26 | 27 | 30 | 24 | 216 | 18 | 7.8 | 12 |
| August | 27 | 27 | 30 | 24 | 329 | 21 | 6.7 | 11 |
| September | 27 | 27 | 29 | 23 | 187 | 14 | 6.1 | 11 |
| October | 26 | 26 | 28 | 21 | 60 | 7 | 5.8 | 12 |
| November | 24 | 25 | 26 | 18 | 46 | 7 | 4.2 | 11 |
| December | 22 | 23 | 23 | 14 | 42 | 6 | 3.5 | 12 |
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 6.5 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 15 km² of land.
- About 0.7 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Sun Moon Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 7campsites
Moye, Toushe Reservoir Camping Area, Biwak and 4 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 7marinas and slipways
Chiang Kai-shek Pier and 6 more
- 4ferry piers
- 33viewpoints
Apricot Platform, Jiang Gong Pavilion, Toushe Basin Lookout, Shuili and Guoxing area and 29 more
- 69hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Harbor Resort, Sun Moon Lake Min Ren Hotel, Songhe Hotel, Bishui Shanju Lakeside B&B, Lago and 64 more
- —fishing spots
- 45restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Taichung International Airport / Ching Chuang Kang Air Base (RMQ), 54 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 | 21.2 | 22.6 | 24.4 | 27.1 | 28.8 | 29.1 | 30.1 | 29.7 | 29.4 | 28.5 | 26.5 | 22.9 |
| 2020 | +0.6 | +0.9 | +1.4 | −1.1 | +1.1 | +0.6 | +0.9 | +0.3 | ±0.0 | +2.0 | +2.5 | +0.7 |
| 2021 | −0.5 | +1.2 | +1.6 | +1.8 | +3.8 | +0.1 | −0.3 | −0.7 | +0.6 | +1.1 | −0.6 | +0.7 |
| 2022 | +0.9 | −0.9 | +1.5 | +0.9 | −1.0 | −0.3 | +1.4 | +2.3 | +2.4 | +2.7 | +2.5 | +0.3 |
| 2023 | +1.2 | +1.9 | +1.6 | +1.0 | +1.7 | +2.6 | +2.9 | +0.9 | +1.1 | +1.2 | +1.6 | +2.1 |
| 2024 | +1.2 | +1.4 | +1.4 | +2.9 | +0.8 | +1.2 | +2.7 | +1.2 | +2.4 | +1.0 | +0.6 | −0.3 |
| 2025 | −0.6 | −1.3 | ±0.0 | −0.3 | +0.4 | +0.8 | −0.4 | +0.1 | +0.8 | +1.3 | +0.4 | +0.7 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
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 (Q716206) · 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.
