Stream
Vaga
575 km from source to mouth · Russia.
RussiaFlows into Northern Dvina
In numbers
Length
575km
Average flow
380m³/s
Basin
44,800km²
Drop
238m
from 119 m to -119 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
575 km of river and 23 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 119 m
- 130 kmVerkhovazh’ye5,200 people
- 140 kmTermengatributary
- 166 kmPezhmatributary
- 169 kmKuloytributary
- 180 kmVel’sk23,126 people
- 187 kmVeltributary
- 279 kmMalaya Churgatributary
- 283 kmBolshaya Churgatributary
- 283 kmUstyatributary
- 335 kmPuyatributary
- 350 kmSherengatributary
- 358 kmSelmengatributary
- 364 kmPadengatributary
- 379 kmShelashatributary
- 386 kmShengatributary
- 386 kmMarekatributary
- 391 kmShenkursk5,893 people
- 400 kmPochatributary
- 437 kmPinezhkatributary
- 457 kmLedtributary
- 463 kmKoskaratributary
- 498 kmSyumatributary
- 518 kmNelengatributary
- 575 kmNorthern Dvinaat -119 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Arkhangelsk and Vologda Oblasts, Russia
At the mouth it carries 384 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 6.5 seconds. It drops from 119 m to -119 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 44,800 km², about the size of EE. 140,000 people live in it. Highest water: from April to June; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Vel’skLargest city on its banks · 23,126 people
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to AugustThe best months to visit
Vaga, month by month
Highest water: from April to June
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Best months to visit: from June to August.
From about 64 m³/s in the lowest month to 860 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
Vaga: the basin in numbers
43,456 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 140,000people live in the basin
- 3/km²people per km²
- 138maverage altitude of the basin
- 604mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 1.4°Caverage air temperature
- 3%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 91% Forest
- 4% Cropland
- 4% Pasture
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
Vaga: what you find on the way
- 2Ferry piers
- 1River beaches
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
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
Vaga in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Northern DvinaRussia744 km3,500 m³/sTributaries (45)
Also: Vel, Ustya, Kuloy, Led, Pezhma, Puya, Padenga, Bolshaya Churga, Sherenga, Nelenga, Syuma, Pocha, Termenga, Shelasha, Mareka, Koskara, Kiyuk, Pinezhka, Shenga, Malaya Churga, Yumzenga, Sheyga, Sevchuga, Paytova Solda
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q63090) · 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 |
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.
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