River
Little Scarcies River
262 km from source to mouth · Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Sierra Leone and GuineaFlows into Atlantic Ocean3rd longest in Sierra Leone
In numbers
Length
262km
Average flow
370m³/s
Basin
7,853km²
Drop
104m
from 104 m to 0 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
262 km of river and 4 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 104 m
- 153 kmKukuna7,676 people
- 215 kmKambia11,520 people
- 250 kmMambolo6,624 people
- 258 kmKassiri5,161 people
- 262 kmAtlantic Oceanat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in West Africa
At the mouth it carries 369 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 6.8 seconds. It drops from 104 m to 0 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 7,853 km², about the size of PR. 456,000 people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- KambiaLargest city on its banks · 11,520 people
- Lungi International Airport (FNA)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 64 km from the city
- On the water6 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From December to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Little Scarcies River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from December to January.
From about 36 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,200 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
Little Scarcies River: the basin in numbers
7,853 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 456,000people live in the basin
- 58/km²people per km²
- 176maverage altitude of the basin
- 2,451mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 27.1°Caverage air temperature
- 10%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 40% Forest
- 11% Cropland
- 5% Pasture
- 2% 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
Little Scarcies River: what you find on the way
- 5Boat ramps
- 1Marinas
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.
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Sierra Leone386 km430 m³/s48 km awayKonkouré RiverGuinea303 km640 m³/s129 km awayMoa RiverSierra Leone425 km890 m³/s275 km awayMano River
Liberia320 km370 m³/s287 km awayCorubal River
Guinea-Bissau560 km300 m³/s357 km awayLofa RiverLiberia347 km520 m³/s344 km awayGeba RiverGuinea-Bissau545 km130 m³/s394 km awaySaint Paul RiverLiberia450 km900 m³/s383 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q3835076) · 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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