River
Attawapiskat River
748 km from source to mouth · Canada.
CanadaFlows into James Bay
In numbers
Length
748km
Average flow
630m³/s
Basin
50,200km²
Drop
326m
from 325 m to -1 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
748 km of river and 15 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmAttawapiskat Lakeat 325 m
- 1 kmBadesdawa Lake25 km²
- 30 kmKakagiwizida Lake8.9 km²
- 31 kmLauber Lake1.1 km²
- 54 kmTyo Lake1.3 km²
- 60 kmSaburn Lake1.3 km²
- 103 kmOzhiski Lake68 km²
- 156 kmKabania Lake69 km²
- 184 kmHague Lake1.5 km²
- 199 kmAttawapiskat Lake200 km²
- 208 kmEarls Lake1.5 km²
- 243 kmBeteau Lake12 km²
- 306 kmLudlow Lake1.2 km²
- 378 kmStreatfeild Rivertributary
- 460 kmMuketei Rivertributary
- 491 kmMissisa Rivertributary
- 748 kmJames Bayat -1 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Kenora District, Ontario, Canada
At the mouth it carries 626 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 4.0 seconds. It drops from 325 m to -1 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 50,200 km², about the size of CR. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from May to July; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- AttawapiskatLargest city on its banks · 1,501 people
- Moosonee Airport (YMO)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 220 km from the cityCar hire at YTS airport (Timmins)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- Kayak and canoe113 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From July to AugustThe best months to visit
Attawapiskat River, month by month
Highest water: from May to July
Lowest water: from January to April. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from July to August.
From about 400 m³/s in the lowest month to 610 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
Attawapiskat River: the basin in numbers
49,939 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 452people live in the basin
- 231maverage altitude of the basin
- 667mmof rain a year (basin average)
- -1.7°Caverage air temperature
- 2%protected areas
- 6.0%covered by lakes
- 12%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 78% Forest
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
Attawapiskat River: what you find on the way
- 113RapidsOzhuskans Rapids and 112 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Attawapiskat 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.
12lakes on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (12)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Badesdawa Lakekm 125km²
- Kakagiwizida Lakekm 308.9km²
- Ozhiski Lakekm 10468km²
- Kabania Lakekm 15669km²
- Hague Lakekm 1851.5km²
- Attawapiskat Lakekm 200200km²
- Earls Lakekm 2081.5km²
- Beteau Lakekm 24412km²
4 more on LakeyasLakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
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.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (3)
Also: Missisa River, Muketei River, Streatfeild River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q757914) · 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 — 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.