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River

Baro River

306 km from source to mouth · Ethiopia and South Sudan.

EthiopiaSouth SudanEthiopia and South SudanFlows into Sobat River4th longest in Ethiopia

Follow the riverMonth by month

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

In numbers

Length

306km

Average flow

240m³/s

Basin

41,400km²

Drop

154m

from 557 m to 403 m

Countries

2

The journey

From source to mouth

306 km of river and 5 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

557 m403 m
Ethiopian Highlandsat 557 m0 km
Gambēla97,600 people63 km
Jikawo Rivertributary198 km
Alero Rivertributary267 km
Sobat Riverat 403 m306 km
0100200306 km
  1. 0 kmEthiopian Highlandsat 557 m
  2. 14 kmGebba Rivertributary
  3. 14 kmBirbir Rivertributary
  4. 63 kmGambēla97,600 people
  5. 198 kmJikawo Rivertributary
  6. 267 kmAlero Rivertributary
  7. 306 kmSobat Riverat 403 m

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

River in southwestern Ethiopia

At the mouth it carries 241 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 10 seconds. It drops from 557 m to 403 m, 0.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 41,400 km², about the size of CH. 5.4 million people live in it. Highest water: from August 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

  • GambēlaLargest city on its banks · 97,600 people
  • Gambela Airport (GMB)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 14 km from the city
  • From November to JanuaryThe best months to visit

Baro River, month by month

Highest water: from August to October

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

260
27°3 mmJan
190
29°7 mmFeb
180
30°19 mmMar
210
29°50 mmApr
360
27°132 mmMay
490
26°127 mmJun
720
26°188 mmJul
880
26°171 mmAug
900
26°143 mmSep
830
27°100 mmOct
600
27°30 mmNov
400
27°5 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 180 m³/s in the lowest month to 900 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

Baro River: the basin in numbers

175,901 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Free-flowingDams upstream can hold only 0.5% of a year's flow: the river still keeps its natural rhythm.
  • 5.4millionpeople live in the basin
  • 30/km²people per km²
  • 785maverage altitude of the basin
  • 1,063mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 25.2°Caverage air temperature
  • 30%protected areas
  • 0.1km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 21% Forest
  • 7% Cropland
  • 38% 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.

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Baro River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Baro River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth57 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.

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q808543) · 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

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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