Skip to content
riveryas
EN

River

Abukuma River

239 km from source to mouth · Japan.

JapanJapanFlows into Pacific Ocean5th longest in Japan

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouthKōriyamaFukushima
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

239km

Average flow

67m³/s

Basin

5,390km²

Drop

323m

from 323 m to 0 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

239 km of river and 19 stops on the way: 14 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

323 m0 m
Sourceat 323 m0 km
Otsuji Falls43 km
Kōriyama327,040 people68 km
Chōshi Falls95 km
Nihommatsu53,557 people102 km
Fukushima294,237 people139 km
Date59,625 people151 km
Marumori13,092 people192 km
Kakuda33,221 people204 km
Pacific Oceanat 0 m239 km
050100150200239 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 323 m
  2. 0 kmKomine Castle
  3. 16 kmAsakawa6,315 people
  4. 43 kmOtsuji Falls
  5. 55 kmSukagawa74,992 people
  6. 68 kmKōriyama327,040 people
  7. 91 kmMotomiya30,236 people
  8. 95 kmChōshi Falls
  9. 102 kmNihommatsu53,557 people
  10. 138 kmBenten-bashi
  11. 139 kmFukushima294,237 people
  12. 151 kmDate59,625 people
  13. 152 kmDate Bridge
  14. 154 kmKoori11,679 people
  15. 157 kmHobaramachi24,515 people
  16. 162 kmFujita8,639 people
  17. 166 kmYanagawamachi-saiwaichō20,807 people
  18. 192 kmMarumori13,092 people
  19. 204 kmKakuda33,221 people
  20. 230 kmIwanuma44,068 people
  21. 239 kmPacific Oceanat 0 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

River in Japan

At the mouth it carries 67 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 37 seconds. It drops from 323 m to 0 m, 1.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 5,390 km², about the size of TT. 1.3 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to October. Its dams hold back little of its water (3.6% of a year's flow).

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • KōriyamaLargest city on its banks · 327,040 people
  • Fukushima Airport (FKS)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 20 km from the cityCar hire at KIJ airport (Niigata)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • From May to June and OctoberThe best months to visit

Abukuma River, month by month

Highest water: from August to October

Best months to visit: from May to June and October.

62
1°49 mmJan
58
1°51 mmFeb
60
4°68 mmMar
74
10°87 mmApr
82
15°95 mmMay
110
19°142 mmJun
130
23°163 mmJul
150
25°154 mmAug
170
20°173 mmSep
170
14°132 mmOct
130
9°66 mmNov
93
4°63 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 58 m³/s in the lowest month to 170 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

Car hire at KIJ airport (Niigata)Discover CarsSee 

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.

The basin

Abukuma River: the basin in numbers

5,359 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Lightly regulatedReservoirs can hold 3.6% of a year's flow.
  • 1.3millionpeople live in the basin
  • 235/km²people per km²
  • 410maverage altitude of the basin
  • 1,357mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 10.7°Caverage air temperature
  • 19%protected areas
  • 0.1%covered by lakes
  • 0.1km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 63% Forest
  • 15% Cropland
  • 13% 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

Abukuma River: what you find on the way

  • 3Dams
  • 11Weirs
  • 1WaterfallsOtsujigataki
  • 1Boat rentals

From OpenStreetMap, within 1.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Abukuma 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.

  • 2waterfalls on the riverCascadyas
  • 1beach at the mouth or on the banksCoastya
  • 17mountains at the sourcePeakyas

Waterfalls (2)

On the river, by Cascadyas

  1. Otsuji Fallskm 33
  2. Chōshi Fallskm 73

Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗

Beaches (1)

At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya

  1. Naga Hama24 km away23.8°C

Open Coastya ↗

Mountains at the source (17)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Mount Nasu2.6 km away1,917m
  2. Mount Sanbonyari1.8 km away1,917m
  3. Mount Asahi2.8 km away1,896m
  4. Mount Chausu4.2 km away1,915m
  5. Kan'non Yama4.0 km away1,640m
  6. Mount Futamata9.4 km away1,544m
  7. Mae Dake1.5 km away
  8. Asahi Dake2.4 km away

9 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Abukuma River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Abukuma River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth10 km across

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

Abukuma River in pictures

AbukumaGawa2005-4b
No machine-readable author provided. Kinori assumed (based on copyright claims). · Public domain
AbukumaGawa20070323
BehBeh at Japanese Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0
20080501AbukumaGawa
BehBeh · CC BY-SA 3.0
Abukuma shinsui koen06-10
Hedena · CC BY-SA 3.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (11)

Also: Arakawa River, Surikami River, Oda River, Hirose River, Shiroishi River, Ōse River, Minami River, Yashiro River (Fukushima), Sasahara River, Fujita River, Gokenbori River

Nearby

Rivers nearby

Shinano RiverJapanJapan367 km460 m³/s155 km awayMogami RiverJapanJapan229 km250 m³/s131 km awayAgano RiverJapanJapan210 km450 m³/s155 km awayTone RiverJapanJapan322 km260 m³/s256 km awayArakawa RiverJapanJapan173 km30 m³/s277 km awayTama RiverJapanJapan138 km37 m³/s298 km awayFuji RiverJapanJapan128 km63 m³/s385 km awayNagara RiverJapanJapan166 km120 m³/s499 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q335853) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesCascadyas, Coastya, 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?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit