River
Kanawha River
156 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Ohio River
In numbers
Length
156km
Average flow
430m³/s
Basin
31,691km²
Drop
24m
from 189 m to 165 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
156 km of river and 47 stops on the way: 31 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 189 m
- 0 kmGauley Rivertributary
- 0 kmNew Rivertributary
- 2 kmGlen Ferris174 people
- 2 kmKanawha Falls
- 6 kmCharlton Heights307 people
- 7 kmFalls View193 people
- 9 kmDeep Water183 people
- 11 kmMount Carbon341 people
- 13 kmArmstrong Creektributary
- 16 kmSmithers754 people
- 17 kmEarl M. Vickers Bridge
- 18 kmMontgomery1,275 people
- 21 kmHandley223 people
- 25 kmPratt483 people
- 26 kmHansford227 people
- 27 kmCabin Creektributary
- 35 kmKellys Creektributary
- 37 kmChelyan681 people
- 37 kmAdmiral T. J. Lopez Bridge
- 42 kmChesapeake1,335 people
- 43 kmBelle1,169 people
- 46 kmMarmet1,504 people
- 48 kmDupont City602 people
- 50 kmRand1,543 people
- 52 kmMalden444 people
- 53 kmChuck Yeager Bridge
- 57 km35th Street Bridge
- 61 kmCharleston48,864 people
- 62 kmElk Rivertributary
- 64 kmCharleston Railroad Bridge
- 71 kmSouth Charleston13,647 people
- 72 kmDunbar7,480 people
- 82 kmSt. Albans10,861 people
- 82 kmSaint Albans11,044 people
- 83 kmCoal Rivertributary
- 85 kmNitro6,624 people
- 88 kmDonald M. Legg Memorial Bridge
- 88 kmNitro WWI Memorial Bridge
- 91 kmPoca874 people
- 93 kmRaymond City367 people
- 97 kmBancroft387 people
- 104 kmWinfield2,393 people
- 104 kmRoss Booth Memorial Bridge
- 120 kmBuffalo1,211 people
- 135 kmLeon137 people
- 155 kmPoint Pleasant4,070 people
- 155 kmHenderson228 people
- 156 kmOhio Riverat 165 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Tributary of Ohio River in West Virginia, United States
At the mouth it carries 432 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 5.8 seconds. It drops from 189 m to 165 m, 0.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 31,691 km², about the size of BE. 914,000 people live in it. Highest water: from March to April. Its dams hold back little of its water (6.9% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- CharlestonLargest city on its banks · 48,864 people
- Yeager Airport (CRW)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 4 km from the cityCar hire at CRW airport (Charleston)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water22 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to June and from August to OctoberThe best months to visit
Kanawha River, month by month
Highest water: from March to April
Best months to visit: from May to June and from August to October.
From about 260 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,300 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
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
Kanawha River: the basin in numbers
31,282 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 914,000people live in the basin
- 30/km²people per km²
- 680maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,154mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 10.5°Caverage air temperature
- 4%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 1.1km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 94% Forest
- 10% Cropland
- 4% Pasture
- 1% 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
Kanawha River: what you find on the way
- 2WeirsGlen Ferris Dam
- 18LocksLondon Lock and Dam, Marmet Lock and Dam, Winfield Lock and Dam and 15 more
- 1WaterfallsCathedral Falls
- 20Boat rampsSt.Albans Boat Ramp, Kayak, Buffalo Boat Ramp and 17 more
- 2Marinas
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Kanawha 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.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
7mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Kanawha Fallskm 2
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Mountains at the source (7)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Armstrong Mountain12 km away
- Bearwallow Knob7.8 km away
- Big Rock9.2 km away
- Cotton Hill5.8 km away
- Ford Knob12 km away
- Gauley Mountain7.2 km away
- Harvey Knob11 km away
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
Kanawha River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Ohio RiverUnited States1,579 km8,000 m³/sTributaries (16)
Also: New River, Elk River, Gauley River, Coal River, Armstrong Creek, Cabin Creek, Kellys Creek, Pocatalico River, Paint Creek, Campbells Creek (West Virginia), Lens Creek, Loop Creek, Smithers Creek, Twomile Creek, Witcher Creek, Davis Creek
In the same basin
United States3,766 km12,700 m³/sMissouri RiverUnited States3,726 km2,500 m³/sArkansas RiverUnited States2,364 km240 m³/sTennessee RiverUnited States1,049 km2,000 m³/sRed RiverUnited States2,189 km1,900 m³/sYellowstone RiverUnited States1,114 km390 m³/sPlatte RiverUnited States500 km200 m³/sCanadian RiverUnited States1,458 km200 m³/sIllinois RiverUnited States432 km660 m³/sAllegheny RiverUnited States523 km560 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
United States372 km190 m³/s76 km awayAllegheny RiverUnited States523 km560 m³/s255 km awayMonongahela RiverUnited States209 km360 m³/s255 km awayKentucky RiverUnited States417 km280 m³/s264 km awayCuyahoga RiverUnited States137 km29 m³/s299 km awayDetroit RiverUnited States45 km5.3 m³/s366 km awayShenandoah RiverUnited States241 km85 m³/s385 km awaySt. Clair RiverUnited States65 km5,200 m³/s412 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q918867) · 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 | Cascadyas, 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?
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