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River

Katonga River

177 km from source to mouth · Uganda.

UgandaUgandaFlows into Lake George3rd longest in Uganda

Follow the riverMonth by month

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

In numbers

Length

177km

Average flow

100m³/s

Basin

13,076km²

Drop

82m

from 1,236 m to 1,154 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

177 km of river and 0 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

1,236 m1,154 m
Sourceat 1,236 m0 km
Lake Georgeat 1,154 m177 km
050100150177 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 1,236 m
  2. 177 kmLake Georgeat 1,154 m

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

River in Uganda

At the mouth it carries 103 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 24 seconds. It drops from 1,236 m to 1,154 m, 0.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 13,076 km², about the size of BS. 1.9 million people live in it. Highest water: November; lowest: February and from July to August. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

Katonga River, month by month

Highest water: November

Lowest water: February and from July to August. Best months to visit: from December to February and from June to July.

96
22°41 mmJan
86
22°50 mmFeb
94
22°91 mmMar
110
22°123 mmApr
110
22°82 mmMay
100
21°33 mmJun
86
21°36 mmJul
85
21°66 mmAug
99
21°99 mmSep
110
22°116 mmOct
120
22°111 mmNov
110
22°62 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 85 m³/s in the lowest month to 120 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 in KampalaDiscover 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

Katonga River: the basin in numbers

13,076 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Free-flowingDams upstream can hold only 0.0% of a year's flow: the river still keeps its natural rhythm.
  • 1.9millionpeople live in the basin
  • 148/km²people per km²
  • 1,249maverage altitude of the basin
  • 969mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 21.4°Caverage air temperature
  • 6%protected areas
  • 0.7%covered by lakes

What covers the basin

  • 13% Forest
  • 44% Cropland
  • 5% Pasture
  • 3% 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.

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Katonga River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Katonga River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth16 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

Katonga River in pictures

Katonga River View along Kampala-Masaka Highway
Emma Oruk · CC BY-SA 4.0
Katonga River Bridge in Mpigi District along Kampala-Masaka Highway
Emma Oruk · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

In the same basin

NileEgyptEgypt6,650 km2,800 m³/sWhite NileSudanSudan2,620 km880 m³/sBlue NileSudanSudan1,783 km1,500 m³/sKagera RiverUgandaUganda400 km350 m³/sSobat RiverSouth SudanSouth Sudan306 km410 m³/sAtbarah RiverSudanSudan1,120 km370 m³/sBahr el Ghazal RiverSouth SudanSouth Sudan716 km2.0 m³/sTekezé RiverSudanSudan608 km140 m³/sMara RiverTanzaniaTanzania395 km18 m³/sValley of the QueensEgyptEgypt4,302 km2,600 m³/s

Nearby

Rivers nearby

Kagera RiverUgandaUganda400 km350 m³/s112 km awaySemliki RiverUgandaUganda230 km240 m³/s192 km awayNzoia RiverKenyaKenya334 km200 m³/s243 km awayMara RiverTanzaniaTanzania395 km18 m³/s301 km awayRurubu RiverTanzaniaTanzania300 km100 m³/s293 km awayNyabarongo RiverRwandaRwanda300 km110 m³/s307 km awayAkanyaru RiverRwandaRwanda212 km110 m³/s299 km awayRuzizi RiverBurundiBurundi117 km400 m³/s472 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q2692613) · 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

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.

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