River
Scioto River
372 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Ohio River
In numbers
Length
372km
Average flow
190m³/s
Basin
16,879km²
Drop
156m
from 309 m to 153 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
372 km of river and 28 stops on the way: 10 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 309 m
- 43 kmKenton8,211 people
- 152 kmDublin Link
- 152 kmDublin45,098 people
- 167 kmUpper Arlington34,907 people
- 172 kmGrandview Heights7,328 people
- 175 kmArthur Boke Bridge (Columbus)
- 176 kmUpper Scioto Rail Bridge
- 176 kmBroad Street Bridge (Columbus)
- 176 kmDiscovery Bridge
- 176 kmBroad Street Bridge (1883, Columbus)
- 176 kmColumbus913,175 people
- 176 kmOlentangy Rivertributary
- 177 kmTown Street Bridge
- 177 kmRich Street Bridge
- 177 kmRich Street Bridge (1891)
- 177 kmMain Street Bridge (1937, Columbus, Ohio)
- 177 kmMain Street Bridge
- 177 kmLower Scioto Rail Bridge
- 178 kmInterstate 70 Scioto River Bridge
- 199 kmBig Walnut Creektributary
- 227 kmBig Darby Creektributary
- 228 kmCircleville13,857 people
- 266 kmChillicothe21,727 people
- 271 kmRoss Lake0.5 km²
- 276 kmPaint Creektributary
- 311 kmWaverly4,274 people
- 366 kmWest Portsmouth3,149 people
- 368 kmPortsmouth20,409 people
- 372 kmOhio Riverat 153 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Ohio
At the mouth it carries 189 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 13 seconds. It drops from 309 m to 153 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 16,879 km², about the size of SZ. 2.0 million people live in it. Highest water: from April to May; lowest: February. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (15% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- ColumbusLargest city on its banks · 913,175 people
- John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 10 km from the cityCar hire at CMH airport (Columbus)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water23 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Scioto River, month by month
Highest water: from April to May
Lowest water: February. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 78 m³/s in the lowest month to 600 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
Scioto River: the basin in numbers
17,043 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 2.0millionpeople live in the basin
- 116/km²people per km²
- 284maverage altitude of the basin
- 986mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 10.6°Caverage air temperature
- 1%protected areas
- 0.4%covered by lakes
- 1.0km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 26% Forest
- 53% Cropland
- 4% Pasture
- 8% 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
Scioto River: what you find on the way
- 5WeirsGriggs Dam, Greenlawn Avenue Low Head Dam and 3 more
- 4WaterfallsIndian Run Falls, Milliken Falls and 2 more
- 18Boat rampsKayak Launch and 17 more
- 4Marinas
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Scioto 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.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
2mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Ross Lakekm 2330.5km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (2)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Mount Lookout8.8 km away
- Anstine Hill8.7 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
Scioto River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Ohio RiverUnited States1,579 km8,000 m³/sTributaries (6)
Also: Olentangy River, Paint Creek, Big Walnut Creek, Big Darby Creek, Little Scioto River, Mill 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 States156 km430 m³/s76 km awayKentucky RiverUnited States417 km280 m³/s188 km awayAllegheny RiverUnited States523 km560 m³/s320 km awayMonongahela RiverUnited States209 km360 m³/s320 km awayCuyahoga RiverUnited States137 km29 m³/s328 km awayDetroit RiverUnited States45 km5.3 m³/s368 km awaySt. Clair RiverUnited States65 km5,200 m³/s422 km awayWabash RiverUnited States960 km1,000 m³/s452 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q209540) · 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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