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River

Artibonite River

240 km from source to mouth · Haiti and Dominican Republic.

HaitiDominican RepublicHaiti and Dominican RepublicFlows into Gulf of Gonâve1st longest in Haiti

Follow the riverMonth by month

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

In numbers

Length

240km

Average flow

99m³/s

Basin

9,013km²

Drop

352m

from 354 m to 2 m

Countries

2

The journey

From source to mouth

240 km of river and 9 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

354 m2 m
Cordillera Centralat 354 m0 km
Mayisad5,204 people32 km
Hinche18,590 people50 km
Rivière Locainetributary76 km
Guayamouc Rivertributary83 km
Lake Péligre11 km²115 km
Rivière de l’Estèretributary128 km
Désarmes15,594 people167 km
Gulf of Gonâveat 2 m240 km
050100150200240 km
  1. 0 kmCordillera Centralat 354 m
  2. 32 kmMayisad5,204 people
  3. 50 kmHinche18,590 people
  4. 76 kmRivière Locainetributary
  5. 83 kmGuayamouc Rivertributary
  6. 115 kmLake Péligre11 km²
  7. 128 kmRivière de l’Estèretributary
  8. 128 kmRivière de Fer à Chevaltributary
  9. 129 kmMirebalais9,082 people
  10. 167 kmDésarmes15,594 people
  11. 240 kmGulf of Gonâveat 2 m

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

River

At the mouth it carries 99 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 25 seconds. It drops from 354 m to 2 m, 1.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 9,013 km², about the size of PR. 1.6 million people live in it. Highest water: from June to July and from September to October; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • HincheLargest city on its banks · 18,590 people
  • Cap Haitien International Airport (CAP)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 68 km from the cityCar hire at CAP airport (Cap Haitien)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • From November to MarchThe best months to visit

Artibonite River, month by month

Highest water: from June to July and from September to October

Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from November to March.

69
24°15 mmJan
61
24°24 mmFeb
66
25°38 mmMar
97
26°106 mmApr
180
26°222 mmMay
240
27°195 mmJun
250
27°166 mmJul
240
27°188 mmAug
240
27°193 mmSep
240
26°170 mmOct
180
25°59 mmNov
120
24°20 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 61 m³/s in the lowest month to 250 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 CAP airport (Cap Haitien)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

Artibonite River: the basin in numbers

8,887 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Free-flowingDams upstream can hold only 0.0% of a year's flow: the river still keeps its natural rhythm.
  • 1.6millionpeople live in the basin
  • 175/km²people per km²
  • 548maverage altitude of the basin
  • 1,495mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 23.5°Caverage air temperature
  • 3%protected areas
  • 0.2%covered by lakes

What covers the basin

  • 11% Forest
  • 60% Cropland
  • 17% Pasture
  • 6% 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

Artibonite River: what you find on the way

  • 2DamsPéligre Hydroelectric Dam
  • 2Ferry piers

From OpenStreetMap, within 1.8 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Artibonite 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
  • 1beach at the mouth or on the banksCoastya
  • 52mountains at the sourcePeakyas

Lakes and reservoirs (1)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Lake Péligrekm 120 · 150 m deep11km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Beaches (1)

At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya

  1. Amani17 km away30.0°C

Open Coastya ↗

Mountains at the source (52)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Pico Duarte0.1 km away · prominence 3,101 m3,101m
  2. Cordillera Central0.0 km away3,098m
  3. Pico del Yaque7.7 km away2,663m
  4. Loma del Pico1.9 km away2,514m
  5. Loma Sillón Hondo9.6 km away2,491m
  6. Pico Alto15 km away1,527m
  7. Loma de las Zarzas12 km away
  8. Loma Sillón de la Viuda12 km away

44 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Artibonite River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Artibonite River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth13 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.

Photos

Artibonite River in pictures

Artibonite River in Haiti (2010)
Kendra Helmer, USAID · Public domain

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (7)

Guayamouc RiverHaitiHaiti113 km27 m³/sjoins at km 86

Also: Rivière de l’Estère, Rivière de Fer à Cheval, Libón River, rivière Boucan Carré, Rivière Blanche, Rivière Locaine

Nearby

Rivers nearby

Yaque del Norte RiverDominican RepublicDominican Republic296 km97 m³/s133 km awayLes Trois RivièresHaitiHaiti150 km24 m³/s77 km awayDajabón RiverDominican RepublicDominican Republic55 km8.6 m³/s118 km awayGuayamouc RiverHaitiHaiti113 km27 m³/s100 km awayToa riverCubaCuba131 km6.1 m³/s223 km awayOzama RiverDominican RepublicDominican Republic148 km66 m³/s316 km awayCauto RiverCubaCuba343 km120 m³/s489 km awayRio CobreJamaicaJamaica51 km14 m³/s451 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q48245) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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, Coastya, 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?

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