River
Dwangwa River
150 km from source to mouth · Malawi.
MalawiFlows into Lake Malawi3rd longest in Malawi
In numbers
Length
150km
Average flow
29m³/s
Basin
7,652km²
Drop
544m
from 1,023 m to 479 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
150 km of river and 0 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,023 m
- 150 kmLake Malawiat 479 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Malawi
At the mouth it carries 29 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 86 seconds. It drops from 1,023 m to 479 m, 3.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 7,652 km², about the size of PR. 546,000 people live in it. Highest water: from February to March; lowest: from July to October. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- NkhotakotaLargest city on its banks · 31,974 people
- Kamuzu International Airport (LLW)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 111 km from the cityCar hire in LilongweDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Dwangwa River, month by month
Highest water: from February to March
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 5.1 m³/s in the lowest month to 84 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
Dwangwa River: the basin in numbers
7,652 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 546,000people live in the basin
- 71/km²people per km²
- 1,090maverage altitude of the basin
- 951mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 20.7°Caverage air temperature
- 36%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 39% Forest
- 20% Cropland
- 20% Pasture
- 1% 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
Dwangwa River: what you find on the way
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.7 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.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Mozambique
Zambia
NamibiaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1268417) · 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 |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
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