Glacial lake · Argentina · Chile
Viedma Lake
Lake in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina
- Area
- 1,193km²
- Average depth
- 100m
- Elevation
- 252m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 291km
- Volume
- 119km³
Viedma Lake is a glacial lake in Argentina. It covers 1,193 km². On average it is 100 m deep. Its surface lies 252 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Viedma Lake?
The water is warmest in February, around 11 °C at the surface, and coldest in August, around 4 °C. Even at its warmest, the surface stays below 17 °C on average: this is cold water.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 14 °C on average in February and 0 °C in July. The driest month is September (24 mm of rain), the wettest May (46 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (158 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 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 4 | 29 | 7 | 8.5 | 29 |
| February | 11 | 11 | 14 | 4 | 27 | 7 | 7.9 | 26 |
| March | 10 | 11 | 11 | 3 | 34 | 8 | 6.2 | 25 |
| April | 9 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 36 | 9 | 4.8 | 23 |
| May | 7 | 8 | 4 | -2 | 46 | 10 | 3.9 | 19 |
| June | 6 | 6 | 1 | -5 | 42 | 10 | 3.0 | 19 |
| July | 5 | 5 | 0 | -6 | 35 | 10 | 3.7 | 18 |
| August | 4 | 4 | 2 | -5 | 36 | 9 | 5.1 | 20 |
| September | 5 | 5 | 5 | -2 | 24 | 6 | 6.0 | 22 |
| October | 6 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 29 | 7 | 7.1 | 26 |
| November | 7 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 30 | 7 | 8.4 | 29 |
| December | 9 | 10 | 12 | 4 | 33 | 9 | 8.3 | 29 |
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 55 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 7,342 km² of land.
- About 69 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Viedma Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 1beaches and swimming spots
- 3campsites
Camp. Bahía de Hornos, Camp. Bahia de los Témpanos
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- 2ferry piers
Bahía Túnel
- 9viewpoints
Mirador Lago Viedma, Viedma Glaciar Viewpoint, Mirador del Cóndor, Mirador de los Témpanos and 5 more
- 3hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Parador Helsingfors, Punta del Lago, Estancia La Estela
- —fishing spots
- —restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: El Calafate - Commander Armando Tola International Airport (FTE), 65 km in a straight line.
Car hire at FTE airport (El Calafate)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 | 13.4 | 13.7 | 11.1 | 7.9 | 3.8 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 2.0 | 5.4 | 8.2 | 10.4 | 12.4 |
| 2020 | −0.2 | +0.5 | +1.9 | +1.2 | +1.6 | −1.0 | −3.2 | −0.5 | +0.1 | +0.5 | +1.8 | +0.1 |
| 2021 | ±0.0 | +2.8 | +1.4 | +1.9 | +0.8 | +0.9 | +2.5 | +1.6 | +1.5 | +0.5 | +1.4 | +2.5 |
| 2022 | +0.7 | +0.5 | −0.5 | −1.1 | +0.1 | +0.6 | −1.5 | +0.1 | +1.0 | +0.4 | +3.0 | +0.4 |
| 2023 | +1.8 | −0.7 | −1.4 | −0.1 | +1.2 | +0.1 | −1.8 | +0.9 | −1.7 | −0.3 | −0.9 | +1.2 |
| 2024 | +1.3 | +1.3 | −0.9 | −0.8 | −3.1 | −2.7 | +0.5 | +1.0 | −1.1 | +1.2 | +1.0 | +1.5 |
| 2025 | +1.0 | −2.3 | −0.2 | +0.4 | −0.3 | −0.1 | +0.6 | +0.9 | +1.4 | −0.4 | +2.6 | −0.3 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
Argentina1,320 km² · 64 km away10°maxO'Higgins/San Martín LakeChile1,010 km² · 64 km away10°maxCardiel LakeArgentina349 km² · 111 km away13°maxDel Toro LakeChile190 km² · 172 km away9°maxCochrane/Pueyrredón LakeChile299 km² · 265 km away12°maxLaguna del CarbónArgentina6.1 km² · 277 km awayAbout 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 (Q918713) · 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.
