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Madeira e Açores · São Miguel, Povoação · Furnas

Lagoa das Furnas

also known as Sao Miguel / Lagoa das Furnas, São Miguel / Lagoa das Furnas

flat waterbeginner-friendly

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

On this page

Wind
- Month by month
Forecast
Water
Level
The scene
Launch
- Rescue
Hazards
Rules & access
Schools
Tips
Getting there
Photos
FAQ

Nearby Praia de Água d'Alto 13 km · Ribeira Grande 18 km · Praia das Milícias (São Roque) 25 km · Lagoa Azul / Sete Cidades 41 km · straight-line distance

SeasonJan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Oct, Nov, Decthe months riders and schools name How windy9 knotssynoptic Launchtightaccess rules on record, below Waterflat20°C in summer · 7 things riders flag LevelBeginner to advancedwith a caveat, in the Level section

Schoolsnone named here

From the airportno transfer time published

On the clock

11:00 · 17:00

Not a thermal spot. Through the wind-bearing half of the year the strength barely changes around the clock, lifting only modestly between 11:00 and 17:00 and settling back by early evening. July shows a clearer daytime bump but from a base far too light to ride. Indicative, from a gridded 2016-2025 hourly record for this part of Sao Miguel.

The marks are the clock times the record names, laid on a 24-hour day. The bar between the first and the last covers those hours; it is not a promise of wind.

Lagoa das Furnas fills a volcanic crater on the southeast side of São Miguel, and it does what a sheltered lake does anywhere: somewhere to ride when the open Atlantic spots are blown out or too rough. High crater walls, not open shoreline.

Rigging space is small and grassy, broken up by trees close enough to the water to sit in your wind window, and the lake stays cold enough year-round to want a wetsuit in any month of the year.

Modeled wind numbers put most of the year in the good range and sag only in July, but which direction comes off the crater walls cleanest, and how gusty that terrain makes it, is unconfirmed. The lake is named as São Miguel's shelter option alongside the other crater lagoon at Sete Cidades.

No school, no rule, no read on the crowd came out of this research. A permit or local kite-club membership may be needed to ride here at all, unconfirmed either way.

The wind

Direction

Kite sizes

891011121314151617

metres · typical quiver highlighted

Character

synoptic

fills in: Not a thermal spot. Through the wind-bearing half of the year the strength barely changes around the clock, lifting only modestly between 11:00 and 17:00 and settling back by early evening. July shows a clearer daytime bump but from a base far too light to ride. Indicative, from a gridded 2016-2025 hourly record for this part of Sao Miguel.

Typical strength

modeled monthly averages run roughly 9 knots (July, the weak point) up to 16 knots (Jan/Feb/Nov/Dec)

Rated good for most of the year and only ok in July, off modeled data. How clean the wind runs around the crater walls is unconfirmed.

São Miguel gets an unusual number of days with wind, around 304 a year, driven by Atlantic low-pressure systems rather than a thermal cycle. That figure is island-wide model data and unconfirmed for the lake itself.

The quiver, in words

No rider account gives a figure. Indicative for a 75-85 kg rider against the wind on record: 10-12 m on the better November-to-March days, 13-15 m or a foil for the far more common soft ones, and nothing that works at all in July and August.Even in the best months only about a quarter of daylight hours reach 12 kt here.

Direction to shore

There is no single answer, because the lake sits in a caldera at about 278 m and the wall is uneven. West, northwest and north of the water the ground stands 450-660 m, which is 170-380 m above the surface; south and east it is only 285-345 m, barely 10-70 m up, where the valley opens towards Furnas village and Ribeira Quente.The strongest winds over this part of the island come from SW through WSW, straight over the high side, so expect broken air over the water rather than a clean line. An E or SE comes up the open valley with far less in the way.Read off terrain and a gridded wind record, with no local rider account to check it against.

Forecast

Month by month

Jan, riders' month29
Feb, riders' month32
Mar, riders' month63
Apr, riders' month30
May, riders' month18
Jun7
Jul6
Aug5
Sep15
Oct, riders' month32
Nov, riders' month35
Dec, riders' month15

windy days per month (3 h+ at 12 kn+)

Ringed months are the ones riders and schools name: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Oct, Nov, Dec.

29%Jan17°
32%Feb17°
63%Mar17°
30%Apr17°
18%May19°
7%Jun21°
6%Jul23°
5%Aug25°
15%Sep24°
32%Oct22°
35%Nov20°
15%Dec19°

windy days per month (3 h+ at 12 kn+) · water °C below · season highlighted

Month	Windy days	Force 4+	12 kn or more	Knots	From	Peaks at	Air	Water	Readings
Jan	29%	45%	37%	11 kt	WSW	14:00	12.7°C	17.4°C	62
Feb	32%	37%	33%	10.3 kt	SE	14:00	12.7°C	17.1°C	57
Mar	63%	73%	68%	13.6 kt	WSW	15:00	13.1°C	16.6°C	62
Apr	30%	50%	35%	10.9 kt	SW	14:00	13.8°C	17.2°C	60
May	18%	24%	23%	8.6 kt	SSW	14:00	15.2°C	18.8°C	62
Jun	7%	15%	7%	8.1 kt	SW	14:00	17°C	20.9°C	60
Jul	6%	10%	6%	6.8 kt	NW	14:00	19.3°C	22.9°C	62
Aug	5%	8%	6%	6.6 kt	NNW	13:00	20.7°C	25.2°C	62
Sep	15%	25%	25%	8.8 kt	NE	13:00	19.7°C	24.1°C	60
Oct	32%	48%	44%	11.8 kt	WSW	13:00	17.5°C	22.4°C	62
Nov	35%	60%	52%	11.6 kt	SW	13:00	15.9°C	20.2°C	60
Dec	15%	27%	21%	8.8 kt	ESE	13:00	13.5°C	18.5°C	62

modelled

A weather model's cell over this place, not a station on it. Good for comparing places, weaker for one beach.

Modelled from the operational forecast archive at 1.5–7 km (2023-2024), daylight hours only, not a ground station: it resolves thermal, lake and valley winds far better than coarse reanalysis but still tends to understate a strong local thermal. A windy day has at least three consecutive daylight hours at 12 knots or more. The typical daily max and the direction are columns of the table above, month by month. Highlighted months are the riding season from the spot record.

High-resolution weather model (modelled) · Open-Meteo historical forecast archive — best-match operational model (ICON-D2 / AROME / ICON-EU / GFS by region), not a ground station · 2023-2024

The water

Type

flat

Standing depth

There is nowhere to stand. The lake averages 6.9 m deep and reaches 15 m, over an area of 1.93 km2 with 6.3 km of shoreline, so a few paces off the margin the bottom is gone. Every rescue here is a swim or a self-rescue in cold water.

Tides

tide-independent (freshwater volcanic crater lake)

Temperature

20°C summer · 13°C winter

Wetsuit

year-round, given cold-water readings even in the warm months

17–25°C water

A crater lake in the Furnas caldera, on the southeast side of São Miguel. Flat water with some chop, no surf. The 13-20C range is annual and warmest in Aug-Sep, and it is modeled rather than taken from anyone who swam in it.

Your level

beginnerintermediateadvanced

All levels are listed as suitable. Flat crater-lake water and a small tree-lined rigging area keep the consequences low; the trees are the hazard.

The scene

What riders come here for

flat waterfreerideshelter-from-the-ocean option

Launch and rules

three ways on to the water, and what each one asks of you

With a school or a boat

No school names this spot

Nobody has been recorded teaching or running a boat here.

On your own

Room to launch: tight

access rules on record

Somewhere else

Praia de Água d'Alto, 13 km

Praia de Água d'Alto Ribeira Grande Praia das Milícias (São Roque)

Every spot within 40 km is on the map at the top of this page, with its distance under it.

Rescue

None. No lifeguard, boat cover or club presence is mapped anywhere on the lake. Furnas village is the nearest help, with a health centre about 2.5 km away and a PSP police post at much the same distance, and 112 is the emergency number in the Azores.

Deep water, no shallows and trees along the shore make a self-rescue plan the entire safety plan.

Launch

Small grassy patches around the lakeshore to rig on, a short walk from parking, with trees close to the water on several sides.

Space

tight

Hazards riders report 7

trees
trees close to the rigging areas and potentially in the wind window
cold water year-round despite the island's mild air temperature
No shallows: the lake averages 6.9 m and reaches 15 m, so there is no wading back.
The prevailing SW to WSW crosses a caldera wall standing 170-380 m above the water on the west and northwest side, which is a recipe for broken, gusty air.
No rescue of any kind on the lake, and the nearest help is 2.5 km away in Furnas village.
Protected-area status: the lake lies inside the Area de Paisagem Protegida das Furnas.

Rules & access

2008: the lake sits inside the Area de Paisagem Protegida das Furnas, one of the protected areas gathered into the Parque Natural de Sao Miguel by Decreto Legislativo Regional 19/2008/A of 8 July, and its catchment is managed under the Plano de Ordenamento da Bacia Hidrografica da Lagoa das Furnas. No clause naming kitesurfing, permitting or banning it, turned up in 2026. Protected status is the thing to ask about before you rig, not a beach by-law.

Access rules drift faster than anything else we hold — check locally, and propose an edit if this has changed.

Rider tips

Come here on the day the coast is blown out; that is the whole reason to have it on the list.
Rig well clear of the trees, because the grassy patches are small and the trees sit in the window.
Wear a wetsuit whatever the month: the lake runs 13-20C over the year and is warmest in Aug-Sep.
Ask in Furnas village whether you need a permit or a club membership before you launch.
Do not come in July for the wind; it is the weak month, around 9 knots on average, and the thermal pools are a better use of the day.
Assume you cannot touch bottom anywhere: mean depth is 6.9 m and the maximum is 15 m.
An easterly or southeasterly comes up the open end of the valley; a southwesterly comes over the high wall and will be the rougher of the two.

Getting there

Airport

PDL Ponta Delgada (João Paulo II Airport)

Route

self-drive from Ponta Delgada to Furnas village, southeast side of São Miguel

No-wind days

Furnas has hot springs, thermal pools and botanical gardens in the same village, which is the standard no-wind day on this side of the island.

Photos

Lagoa das Furnas - panoramio (21) — JCNazza, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

FAQ

When is the best time to kitesurf here?

Best months are listed as January through May and October through December.

Is Lagoa das Furnas suitable for beginners?

It is listed as suitable for beginner, intermediate and expert riders, though details on rescue or lessons were not verified.

What are the main hazards?

The small grassy rigging areas have many trees nearby.

Last updated: August 2026