River
Lerma River
750 km from source to mouth · Mexico.
MexicoFlows into Lake Chapala3rd longest in Mexico
In numbers
Length
750km
Average flow
340m³/s
Basin
38,500km²
Drop
1,049m
from 2,571 m to 1,522 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
750 km of river and 23 stops on the way: 22 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmAlmoloya del Río Municipalityat 2,571 m
- 7 kmAlmoloya del Río9,507 people
- 8 kmSanta Cruz Atizapán8,062 people
- 12 kmSan Pedro Tlaltizapan11,472 people
- 19 kmSan Pedro Chochula8,798 people
- 19 kmSan Pedro Cholula8,941 people
- 21 kmSan Pedro Tultepec13,634 people
- 22 kmSan Mateo Atenco67,890 people
- 25 kmLerma de Villada22,713 people
- 29 kmEl Cerrillo Vista Hermosa8,699 people
- 43 kmVilla Cuauhtémoc11,241 people
- 91 kmSanto Domingo de Guzmán8,008 people
- 98 kmSan Pedro Los Baños11,886 people
- 128 kmAtlacomulco de Fabela22,774 people
- 160 kmTemascalcingo12,698 people
- 303 kmAcámbaro108,697 people
- 340 kmSalvatierra37,203 people
- 377 kmJaral del Progreso20,457 people
- 424 kmSalamanca160,682 people
- 599 kmLa Piedad de Cabadas83,323 people
- 599 kmSanta Ana Pacueco10,052 people
- 649 kmYurécuaro23,843 people
- 688 kmLa Barca35,219 people
- 724 kmLake Chapala1,052 km²
- 750 kmLake Chapalaat 1,522 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Mexico
At the mouth it carries 345 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 7.2 seconds. It drops from 2,571 m to 1,522 m, 1.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 38,500 km², about the size of GW. 10.8 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from January to April. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 88% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- SalamancaLargest city on its banks · 160,682 people
- Guanajuato International Airport (BJX)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 55 km from the cityCar hire at QRO airport (Querétaro)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From January to April and NovemberThe best months to visit
Lerma River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from January to April and November.
From about 25 m³/s in the lowest month to 150 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
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The basin
Lerma River: the basin in numbers
40,322 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 10.8millionpeople live in the basin
- 267/km²people per km²
- 2,075maverage altitude of the basin
- 763mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 17.4°Caverage air temperature
- 10%protected areas
- 0.7%covered by lakes
- 2.3km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 54% Forest
- 41% Cropland
- 19% Pasture
- 9% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Lerma River: what you find on the way
- 4Waterfalls
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Lerma River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
25mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Chapalakm 583 · 10 m deep1,052km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (25)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Volcán Teconto14 km away3,121m
- Volcán La Silva13 km away3,107m
- Volcán Tomasquillo12 km away3,017m
- Volcán Texontepec13 km away2,960m
- Volcán Tres Cruces7.8 km away2,915m
- Volcán Tehualtepec12 km away2,880m
- Volcánes Cuates7.0 km away2,841m
- Volcán Tepetzingo13 km away2,813m
17 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Lerma River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (1)
Also: Bolaños River
In the same basin
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1633955) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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