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River

Saskatchewan River

547 km from source to mouth · Canada.

CanadaCanadaFlows into Lake Winnipeg

Follow the riverMonth by month

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

In numbers

Length

547km

Average flow

700m³/s

Basin

335,900km²

Drop

163m

from 378 m to 215 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

547 km of river and 34 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

378 m215 m
North Saskatchewan Riverat 378 m0 km
Tobin Lake261 km²140 km
McAuley Lake0.6 km²179 km
Cumberland Lake419 km²226 km
Barrier Lake5.4 km²268 km
Little Minekwao Lake0.5 km²310 km
Grace Lake9.3 km²338 km
James Mason Lake0.5 km²382 km
Cedar Lake2,504 km²505 km
Lake Winnipegat 215 m547 km
0200400547 km
  1. 0 kmNorth Saskatchewan Riverat 378 m
  2. 0 kmNorth Saskatchewan Rivertributary
  3. 0 kmSouth Saskatchewan Rivertributary
  4. 140 kmTobin Lake261 km²
  5. 176 kmTorch Rivertributary
  6. 179 kmMcAuley Lake0.6 km²
  7. 184 kmCook Lake1.6 km²
  8. 185 kmBen Lake0.9 km²
  9. 226 kmCumberland Lake419 km²
  10. 237 kmEgg Lake16 km²
  11. 237 kmLittle Egg Lake2.2 km²
  12. 241 kmBig Lake8.1 km²
  13. 268 kmBarrier Lake5.4 km²
  14. 287 kmKakeyaskooskak Lake0.8 km²
  15. 310 kmLittle Minekwao Lake0.5 km²
  16. 327 kmPike Lake0.7 km²
  17. 332 kmPasquia Rivertributary
  18. 332 kmCarrot Rivertributary
  19. 333 kmThe Pas5,369 people
  20. 338 kmGrace Lake9.3 km²
  21. 354 kmMontreal Lake3.3 km²
  22. 354 kmMistasinnewuk Lake0.5 km²
  23. 359 kmMistikewapi Lake0.6 km²
  24. 364 kmLittle Kelsey Lake4.1 km²
  25. 369 kmKapakoskasewakak Lake0.9 km²
  26. 371 kmKelsey Lake28 km²
  27. 377 kmKapakwak Lake1.4 km²
  28. 378 kmKapiskwutunestekowoot Lake1.0 km²
  29. 382 kmJames Mason Lake0.5 km²
  30. 390 kmMiriam Baker Lake0.6 km²
  31. 392 kmPikwatchiasoykun Lake2.7 km²
  32. 395 kmClarence Watts Lake0.5 km²
  33. 396 kmElbow Lake1.1 km²
  34. 404 kmCorrigan Lake1.3 km²
  35. 505 kmCedar Lake2,504 km²
  36. 547 kmLake Winnipegat 215 m

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

River in Canada

At the mouth it carries 700 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 3.6 seconds. It drops from 378 m to 215 m, 0.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 335,900 km², about the size of FI. 3.8 million people live in it. Highest water: from June to July; lowest: from December to March. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 151% of a year's flow.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • The PasLargest city on its banks · 5,369 people
  • The Pas Airport (YQD)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 19 km from the cityCar hire at YTH airport (Thompson)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • On the water3 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • Kayak and canoe6 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
  • From June to AugustThe best months to visit

Saskatchewan River, month by month

Highest water: from June to July

Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Best months to visit: from June to August.

540
-21°18 mmJan
530
-16°15 mmFeb
530
-10°23 mmMar
610
1°23 mmApr
630
10°43 mmMay
640
15°67 mmJun
650
18°71 mmJul
600
16°63 mmAug
610
10°53 mmSep
600
4°32 mmOct
580
-7°25 mmNov
560
-17°22 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 530 m³/s in the lowest month to 650 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 at YTH airport (Thompson)Discover 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

Saskatchewan River: the basin in numbers

332,024 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

DammedReservoirs can hold 151% of a year's flow: much of the river is a chain of lakes.
  • 3.8millionpeople live in the basin
  • 11/km²people per km²
  • 787maverage altitude of the basin
  • 446mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 1.5°Caverage air temperature
  • 9%protected areas
  • 4.7%covered by lakes
  • 2%permafrost
  • 28km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 32% Forest
  • 37% Cropland
  • 20% 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

Saskatchewan River: what you find on the way

  • 17DamsFrançois-Finlay Dam, E.B. Campbell Dam, Knapp Dam and 14 more
  • 1WeirsBracken Dam
  • 6Rapids
  • 2Boat rampsboat launch dual, pickup docks
  • 1Marinasvanity ventures

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Saskatchewan 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.

  • 28lakes on its wayLakeyas

Lakes and reservoirs (28)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Tobin Lakekm 163261km²
  2. Cumberland Lakekm 265419km²
  3. Egg Lakekm 27716km²
  4. Big Lakekm 2828.1km²
  5. Grace Lakekm 3959.3km²
  6. Kelsey Lakekm 43428km²
  7. Elbow Lakekm 4641.1km²
  8. Cedar Lakekm 5912,504km²

20 more on LakeyasLakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Saskatchewan River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Saskatchewan River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth79 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.

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (6)

North Saskatchewan RiverCanadaCanada1,380 km240 m³/sjoins at km 0South Saskatchewan RiverCanadaCanada1,000 km250 m³/sjoins at km 0

Also: Carrot River, Sturgeon-weir River, Torch River, Pasquia River

In the same basin

Nelson RiverCanadaCanada644 km2,800 m³/sRed River of the NorthCanadaCanada890 km260 m³/sAssiniboine RiverCanadaCanada1,275 km45 m³/sBow RiverCanadaCanada587 km130 m³/sRed Deer RiverCanadaCanada801 km70 m³/sOldman RiverCanadaCanada445 km95 m³/sWinnipeg RiverCanadaCanada298 km950 m³/sQu'Appelle RiverCanadaCanada743 km14 m³/sSouris RiverCanadaCanada1,240 km60 m³/s

Nearby

Rivers nearby

Red River of the NorthCanadaCanada890 km260 m³/s353 km awayWinnipeg RiverCanadaCanada298 km950 m³/s344 km awayQu'Appelle RiverCanadaCanada743 km14 m³/s339 km awayNorth Saskatchewan RiverCanadaCanada1,380 km240 m³/s390 km awaySouth Saskatchewan RiverCanadaCanada1,000 km250 m³/s390 km awayAssiniboine RiverCanadaCanada1,275 km45 m³/s395 km awaySouris RiverCanadaCanada1,240 km60 m³/s395 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q3047) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth 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
Our other atlasesLakeyas — 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.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit