River
Thelon River
904 km from source to mouth · Canada.
CanadaFlows into Baker Lake
In numbers
Length
904km
Average flow
840m³/s
Basin
142,400km²
Drop
376m
from 350 m to -26 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
904 km of river and 11 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmWhitefish Lakeat 350 m
- 5 kmWhitefish Lake309 km²
- 80 kmBewick Lake73 km²
- 137 kmJim Lake24 km²
- 252 kmEyeberry Lake67 km²
- 313 kmDowntree Lake1.1 km²
- 333 kmCosmos Lake8.0 km²
- 582 kmBeverly Lake149 km²
- 588 kmDubawnt Rivertributary
- 710 kmQamanaarjuk Lake1,103 km²
- 760 kmSchultz Lake411 km²
- 824 kmTupik Lake0.5 km²
- 904 kmBaker Lakeat -26 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada
At the mouth it carries 840 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 3.0 seconds. It drops from 350 m to -26 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 142,400 km², about the size of TJ. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from July to September; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Baker LakeLargest city on its banks · 2,061 people
- Baker Lake Airport (YBK)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 4 km from the cityCar hire at YTH airport (Thompson)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- Kayak and canoe34 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From July to AugustThe best months to visit
Thelon River, month by month
Highest water: from July to September
Lowest water: from January to April. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from October to May. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from July to August.
From about 680 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,400 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
Thelon River: the basin in numbers
158,397 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 121people live in the basin
- 284maverage altitude of the basin
- 263mmof rain a year (basin average)
- -10.5°Caverage air temperature
- 27%protected areas
- 19.9%covered by lakes
- 95%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 2% 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.
Along the river
Thelon River: what you find on the way
- 34Rapids
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Thelon 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.
10lakes on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (10)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Whitefish Lakekm 6309km²
- Bewick Lakekm 8773km²
- Jim Lakekm 14824km²
- Eyeberry Lakekm 27467km²
- Cosmos Lakekm 3618.0km²
- Beverly Lakekm 631149km²
- Qamanaarjuk Lakekm 7701,103km²
- Schultz Lakekm 823411km²
2 more on LakeyasLakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
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
Thelon River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (3)
Also: Dubawnt River, Hanbury River, Mary Frances River
In the same basin
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q2416760) · 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 — 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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