United States
Satellite: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX (CC BY 4.0). Outline and points © OpenStreetMap contributors / Natural Earth. North up.
In numbers
45.7km²
Area
36km
Coastline
963m
Highest point
Lata Mountain
790
People
29°C
Warmest sea
March
4,221km
To the mainland
When to go to Taʻū
Best for the beach from January to April and in August.
The sea is warmest in March (29 °C) and coolest in August (28 °C). You can swim comfortably all year (21 °C or more).
Averages 1991–2020. Sea: NOAA OISST, the water within 35 km of the coast. Air, rain and sun: NASA POWER. Best months weigh warm afternoons (23–30 °C), sea of 24 °C or more and few wet days.
Island of American Samoa
Taʻū is an volcanic island in United States. It covers 45.7 km², with 36 km of coastline. Its highest point, Lata Mountain, rises to 963 m. About 790 people live on it. The nearest mainland is 4,221 km away.
Getting there
- Pago Pago International Airport (PPG)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 133 km in a straight lineCar hire at KOA airport (Kailua-Kona)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- FerriesManu’a Islands Ferry
- 4,221 km from the mainlanddistance to the nearest continental coast
- From January to April and Augustbest months to go (from 30 years of averages)
Plan the trip
Ferries, stays and things to do
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
On the island
What you find on Taʻū.
- 1beaches
- 2ferry terminalsFaleaso Wharf, Ta‘ū Wharf
- 2named peaksLata Mountain, Maluatia Hill
- 4volcanoesOlomatimu Crater, Olomanu Crater, Judds Crater and 1 more
- 1ruins and archaeological sitesTau Airport
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, inside the island's outline. A low number may only mean nobody has mapped it yet.
The shape of the land.
On average the island stands 370 m above the sea. 31 % of it is below 200 m.
- 9 %0–50 m
- 22 %50–200 m
- 39 %200–500 m
- 30 %500–1,000 m
Share of the island's area in each altitude band, from the Copernicus DEM (30 m, read at 30–240 m on large islands).
Size, for real
Next to islands you may know.
5 km
All outlines drawn to the same scale (Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap).
Towns on the island
- Ta`ū873 people
- Faleāsaono census figure
Month by month
The weather on the island.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon high (°C) | 28 | 28 | 29 | 29 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 27 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 |
| Night low (°C) | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 27 | 27 | 27 | 27 | 27 | 28 |
| Sea (°C) | 29 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 29 | 29 |
| Rain (mm) | 273 | 253 | 168 | 172 | 130 | 80 | 75 | 60 | 86 | 136 | 216 | 246 |
| Wet days | 25 | 22 | 24 | 22 | 20 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 16 | 21 | 24 | 24 |
| Sun h/day | 6.8 | 6.9 | 7.7 | 7.4 | 7.1 | 7.3 | 7.4 | 8.1 | 8.4 | 8.2 | 7.5 | 7.1 |
| Wind (km/h) | 18 | 19 | 16 | 17 | 20 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 22 | 19 | 18 |
Averages 1991–2020 for the ~55 km NASA POWER cell over the island; the sea from NOAA OISST.
Recent years
Warmer and cooler years at sea.
Each month's sea temperature compared with its 1991–2020 average, in degrees.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | −0.6 | ±0.0 | +0.6 | +1.0 | +0.9 | +0.6 | +0.7 | +0.5 | +0.7 | +0.7 | +0.4 | +0.2 |
| 2021 | +0.2 | ±0.0 | +0.2 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.3 | +0.2 | +0.3 | +0.5 | +0.5 | +0.4 | +0.2 |
| 2022 | +0.4 | −0.1 | −0.1 | ±0.0 | +0.2 | +0.4 | +0.1 | −0.2 | −0.2 | ±0.0 | ±0.0 | +0.1 |
| 2023 | ±0.0 | +0.3 | +0.4 | +0.6 | +0.2 | +0.5 | +0.6 | +1.0 | +0.6 | +0.5 | +0.2 | −0.3 |
| 2024 | +0.7 | +0.4 | +1.0 | +1.3 | +1.3 | +0.6 | +0.5 | −0.1 | +0.1 | +0.3 | −0.2 | +0.4 |
| 2025 | +0.6 | +0.6 | +0.6 | +0.6 | +0.5 | +0.3 | +0.7 | +0.6 | +0.3 | +0.3 | +0.3 | +0.6 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Samoa
TokelauAbout these numbers
| Names, area, population | Wikidata (Q21847427) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Outline | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Sea temperature | NOAA OISST v2.1 · 1991–2020 |
| Climate | NASA POWER · 1991–2020 |
| Relief, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Beaches, ports, lighthouses, trails | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Towns | GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
beaches
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canyons
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