River
Porcupine River
916 km from source to mouth · Canada and United States.
Canada and United StatesFlows into Yukon River
In numbers
Length
916km
Average flow
650m³/s
Basin
61,400km²
Drop
706m
from 789 m to 83 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
916 km of river and 7 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmMiner Riverat 789 m
- 394 kmTroochoonjiktributary
- 424 kmCadzow Lake2.7 km²
- 486 kmOld Crow Rivertributary
- 663 kmColeen Rivertributary
- 794 kmGailey Lake0.6 km²
- 811 kmSheenjek Rivertributary
- 828 kmDraanjik Rivertributary
- 916 kmYukon Riverat 83 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Canada and in Alaska
At the mouth it carries 650 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 3.8 seconds. It drops from 789 m to 83 m, 0.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 61,400 km², about the size of LV. 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
- Fort Yukon Airport (FYU)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 6 km from the cityCar hire at FAI airport (Fairbanks)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- JulyThe best months to visit
Porcupine River, month by month
Highest water: from May to July
Lowest water: from January to April. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from October to April. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: July.
From about 160 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,500 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
Porcupine River: the basin in numbers
91,659 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 294people live in the basin
- 569maverage altitude of the basin
- 228mmof rain a year (basin average)
- -10.0°Caverage air temperature
- 52%protected areas
- 1.7%covered by lakes
- 94%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 9% 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.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Porcupine 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.
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
2mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Cadzow Lakekm 3582.7km²
- Gailey Lakekm 6710.6km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (2)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Mount Chief Isaac6.3 km away
- Mount Gale1.5 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
Porcupine River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Yukon RiverCanada3,190 km6,400 m³/sTributaries (13)
Also: Old Crow River, Draanjik River, Sheenjek River, Coleen River, Rapid River, Troochoonjik, Grass River, Bell River, Pine Creek, Miner River, Whitestone River, Sucker River, Eagle River
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q284603) · 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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