River
Orava
60 km from source to mouth · Slovakia.
SlovakiaFlows into Váh9th longest in Slovakia
In numbers
Length
60km
Average flow
340m³/s
Basin
1,992km²
Drop
153m
from 596 m to 443 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
60 km of river and 11 stops on the way: 8 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmOravská Maguraat 596 m
- 0 kmBiela Oravatributary
- 3 kmOrava28 km²
- 9 kmTvrdošín water dam0.5 km²
- 10 kmTvrdošín8,579 people
- 13 kmNižná3,929 people
- 17 kmPodbiel1,338 people
- 26 kmSedliacka Dubová534 people
- 28 kmHorná Lehota591 people
- 32 kmOravský Podzámok1,367 people
- 43 kmDolný Kubín17,378 people
- 60 kmKraľovany424 people
- 60 kmVáhat 443 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Slovakia
At the mouth it carries 345 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 7.2 seconds. It drops from 596 m to 443 m, 2.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,992 km², about the size of MU. 164,000 people live in it. Highest water: March; lowest: from December to February. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (32% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- Dolný KubínLargest city on its banks · 17,378 people
- Sliač Airport (SLD)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 65 km from the cityCar hire at TAT airport (Poprad)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water4 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Orava, month by month
Highest water: March
Lowest water: from December to February. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): January. Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 12 m³/s in the lowest month to 86 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
Orava: the basin in numbers
1,967 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 164,000people live in the basin
- 85/km²people per km²
- 803maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,021mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 5.6°Caverage air temperature
- 38%protected areas
- 1.5%covered by lakes
- 0.3km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 78% Forest
- 11% Cropland
- 23% Pasture
- 4% 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
Orava: what you find on the way
- 6Weirs
- 3Waterfallsv Podbiely, Uhlisko, Ľadopád Bystrička
- 4MarinasPrístav č. 2, Prístav č. 1 and 2 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Orava 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.
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
32mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Oravakm 4 · 38 m deep28km²
- Tvrdošín water damkm 90.5km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (32)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Skorušina13 km away1,314m
- Skorušinské vrchy13 km away1,314m
- Kopec15 km away1,251m
- Machy14 km away1,202m
- Budín8.3 km away1,221m
- Magurka4.9 km away1,107m
- Javorková11 km away1,140m
- Mních12 km away1,110m
24 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
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
Orava in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
VáhSlovakia433 km150 m³/sTributaries (13)
Also: Biela Orava, Oravica, Studený potok, Zázrivka, Chlebnice, Bystrička, Istebnianka, Jasenovský potok, Krivský Potok, Dubový potok, Jelšava, Lehotský potok, Skalický potok
Romania
Serbia
Croatia
Germany
Moldova
AustriaNearby
Rivers nearby
Czechia
Poland
HungaryWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q510481) · 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, 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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