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River

Black Drin

177 km from source to mouth · Albania and North Macedonia.

AlbaniaNorth MacedoniaAlbania and North MacedoniaFlows into Drin5th longest in Albania

Follow the riverMonth by month

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

In numbers

Length

177km

Average flow

50m³/s

Basin

11,968km²

Drop

412m

from 689 m to 277 m

Countries

2

The journey

From source to mouth

177 km of river and 11 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

689 m277 m
Lake Ohridat 689 m0 km
Lake Ohrid354 km²31 km
Velesta8,646 people42 km
Lake Globočica1.5 km²55 km
Radikatributary79 km
Debar Lake10 km²80 km
pipeline bridge over the Drini i Zi in Laçe122 km
Arras3,055 people124 km
Drinat 277 m177 km
050100150177 km
  1. 0 kmLake Ohridat 689 m
  2. 31 kmLake Ohrid354 km²
  3. 32 kmStruga37,387 people
  4. 42 kmVelesta8,646 people
  5. 55 kmLake Globočica1.5 km²
  6. 79 kmRadikatributary
  7. 80 kmDebar Lake10 km²
  8. 91 kmBanište Rivertributary
  9. 122 kmpipeline bridge over the Drini i Zi in Laçe
  10. 124 kmArras3,055 people
  11. 173 kmKukës36,125 people
  12. 174 kmGreat Bridge of Kukës
  13. 177 kmDrinat 277 m

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

River in North Macedonia and Albania

At the mouth it carries 50 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 50 seconds. It drops from 689 m to 277 m, 2.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 11,968 km², about the size of QA. 342,000 people live in it. Highest water: from November to January; lowest: from July to September. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (29% of a year's flow).

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

Black Drin, month by month

Highest water: from November to January

Lowest water: from July to September. Best months to visit: from May to September.

180
1°100 mmJan
150
3°90 mmFeb
130
6°85 mmMar
120
10°83 mmApr
100
15°85 mmMay
70
18°54 mmJun
49
20°46 mmJul
43
20°48 mmAug
63
17°70 mmSep
110
12°96 mmOct
170
7°128 mmNov
190
3°116 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 43 m³/s in the lowest month to 190 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 OHD airport (Ohrid)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

Black Drin: the basin in numbers

4,798 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Heavily regulatedReservoirs can hold 29% of a year's flow: dams shape its seasons.
  • 342,000people live in the basin
  • 74/km²people per km²
  • 1,159maverage altitude of the basin
  • 999mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 8.3°Caverage air temperature
  • 24%protected areas
  • 8.0%covered by lakes
  • 0.9km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 34% Forest
  • 23% Cropland
  • 20% Pasture
  • 3% 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

Black Drin: what you find on the way

  • 5Dams
  • 1Waterfalls
  • 9River beachesMay Flower, Beach Aquarius, Versus Beach and 6 more

From OpenStreetMap, within 1.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Black Drin 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.

  • 3lakes on its wayLakeyas
  • 22mountains at the sourcePeakyas

Lakes and reservoirs (3)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Lake Ohridkm 28 · 289 m deep354km²
  2. Lake Globočicakm 501.5km²
  3. Debar Lakekm 7210km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Mountains at the source (22)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Parumba14 km away2,041m
  2. Cumin Vrv14 km away1,935m
  3. Mali Kokal12 km away1,861m
  4. Meckina Dupka9.5 km away1,838m
  5. Aymas14 km away1,669m
  6. Rujan8.3 km away1,527m
  7. Ara Malichet7.8 km away1,519m
  8. Sinor8.9 km away1,418m

14 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Black Drin: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Black Drin: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth10 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

Black Drin in pictures

Skudrinje - panoramio - BETASPED d.o.o. (2)
BETASPED d.o.o. · CC BY 3.0
Sunset at Black Drin, Diber
Albert1339 · CC0
Swiming at Drin river, Struga (2)
Liridon · CC BY-SA 4.0
Swiming at Drin river, Struga (3)
Liridon · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

It flows into

DrinAlbaniaAlbania280 km350 m³/s

Tributaries (4)

Also: Radika, Umska Reka, Banište River, Modrič River

In the same basin

BunaAlbaniaAlbania40 km680 m³/sWhite DrinAlbaniaAlbania175 km56 m³/sMoračaMontenegroMontenegro99 km15 m³/sCem RiverMontenegroMontenegro62 km260 m³/sRibnicaMontenegroMontenegro57 km67 m³/sErenikKosovoKosovo51 km38 m³/sLumbardhi PejësKosovoKosovo62 km22 m³/s

Nearby

Rivers nearby

White DrinAlbaniaAlbania175 km56 m³/s0 km awayErenikKosovoKosovo51 km38 m³/s32 km awayBunaAlbaniaAlbania40 km680 m³/s89 km awayTreskaNorth MacedoniaNorth Macedonia132 km2,300 m³/s79 km awayMatAlbaniaAlbania115 km100 m³/s83 km awayLumbardhi PejësKosovoKosovo62 km22 m³/s55 km awayMoračaMontenegroMontenegro99 km15 m³/s102 km awaySitnicaSerbiaSerbia90 km95 m³/s98 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q158924) · 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
Our other atlasesLakeyas, 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