River
Atrato River
644 km from source to mouth · Colombia.
ColombiaFlows into Gulf of Urabá5th longest in Colombia
In numbers
Length
644km
Average flow
4,900m³/s
Basin
38,500km²
Drop
464m
from 464 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
644 km of river and 19 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 464 m
- 64 kmQuibdó130,825 people
- 116 kmMedio Atrato33,542 people
- 150 kmCiénaga Aguaclara2.1 km²
- 160 kmCiénaga Achuarra2.2 km²
- 272 kmMurrí Rivertributary
- 282 kmVigía del Fuerte5,624 people
- 285 kmBojayá Rivertributary
- 313 kmCiénaga Napipí2.6 km²
- 340 kmCiénaga Muriel2.1 km²
- 387 kmCiénagas de Montaña15 km²
- 403 kmCiénagas El Burro2.1 km²
- 404 kmCiénaga San Alejandro1.4 km²
- 432 kmCiénaga Las Mujeres9.5 km²
- 457 kmCiénaga de Pedeguita0.5 km²
- 465 kmCiénaga de Pedega6.4 km²
- 474 kmCiénaga Carvajal1.3 km²
- 491 kmCiénaga La Mazamorra0.5 km²
- 493 kmRiosucio48,257 people
- 506 kmCiénaga El Encanto0.3 km²
- 644 kmGulf of Urabáat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Colombia
At the mouth it carries 4,900 m³/s on average: 2.0 Olympic pools every second. It drops from 464 m to 0 m, 0.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 38,500 km², about the size of GW. 446,000 people live in it. Highest water: from July to October. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- QuibdóLargest city on its banks · 130,825 people
- El Caraño Airport (UIB)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 2 km from the cityCar hire in MedellinDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From September to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Atrato River, month by month
Highest water: from July to October
Best months to visit: from September to January.
From about 2,200 m³/s in the lowest month to 4,500 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
Atrato River: the basin in numbers
35,996 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 446,000people live in the basin
- 12/km²people per km²
- 488maverage altitude of the basin
- 4,509mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 24.8°Caverage air temperature
- 17%protected areas
- 0.6%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 61% Forest
- 1% Cropland
- 14% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Atrato 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.
13lakes on its wayLakeyas
1beach at the mouth or on the banksCoastya
Lakes and reservoirs (13)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Ciénaga Achuarrakm 1152.2km²
- Ciénaga Napipíkm 2252.6km²
- Ciénaga Murielkm 2452.1km²
- Ciénagas de Montañakm 27915km²
- Ciénagas El Burrokm 2902.1km²
- Ciénaga San Alejandrokm 2911.4km²
- Ciénaga Las Mujereskm 3119.5km²
- Ciénaga de Pedegakm 3346.4km²
5 more on LakeyasLakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Beaches (1)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Playa Tarena16 km away29.3°C
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
Atrato River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (2)
Also: Murrí River, Bojayá River
PanamaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1363972) · 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, Coastya — 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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