River
Chepo River
206 km from source to mouth · Panama.
PanamaFlows into Gulf of Panama3rd longest in Panama
In numbers
Length
206km
Average flow
150m³/s
Basin
5,292km²
Drop
131m
from 131 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
206 km of river and 1 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmCordillera de San Blasat 131 m
- 141 kmBayano Lake254 km²
- 206 kmGulf of Panamaat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Panama
At the mouth it carries 155 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 16 seconds. It drops from 131 m to 0 m, 0.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 5,292 km², about the size of TT. 43,000 people live in it. Highest water: from October to November; lowest: from January to April. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 82% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- ChepilloLargest city on its banks · 255 people
- Tocumen International Airport (PTY)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 31 km from the cityCar hire at PTY airport (Tocumen)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water4 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From January to MarchThe best months to visit
Chepo River, month by month
Highest water: from October to November
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from January to March.
From about 42 m³/s in the lowest month to 280 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
Chepo River: the basin in numbers
4,909 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 43,000people live in the basin
- 9/km²people per km²
- 215maverage altitude of the basin
- 2,211mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 25.5°Caverage air temperature
- 5.2%covered by lakes
- 4.0km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 54% Forest
- 9% Cropland
- 17% 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
Chepo River: what you find on the way
- 2Boat ramps
- 2Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Chepo 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
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Bayano Lakekm 119254km²
Lakeyas 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
Chepo River in pictures
Colombia
Costa RicaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q602176) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit 
mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit