River
Lofa River
347 km from source to mouth · Liberia and Guinea.
Liberia and GuineaFlows into Atlantic Ocean2nd longest in Liberia
In numbers
Length
347km
Average flow
520m³/s
Basin
9,194km²
Drop
516m
from 522 m to 6 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
347 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 kmSourceat 522 m
- 87 kmLawa Rivertributary
- 347 kmAtlantic Oceanat 6 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Guinea and in Liberia
At the mouth it carries 517 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 4.8 seconds. It drops from 522 m to 6 m, 1.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 9,194 km², about the size of CY. 294,000 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
- RobertsportLargest city on its banks · 5,306 people
- Spriggs Payne Airport (MLW)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 85 km from the city
- From December to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Lofa 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 84 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,300 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
Lofa River: the basin in numbers
10,494 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 294,000people live in the basin
- 28/km²people per km²
- 364maverage altitude of the basin
- 2,783mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 25.2°Caverage air temperature
- 3%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 48% Forest
- 1% Cropland
- 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.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Lofa 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.
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
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
Tributaries (1)
Also: Lawa River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Liberia450 km900 m³/s39 km awayMano RiverLiberia320 km370 m³/s58 km awayMoa River
Sierra Leone425 km890 m³/s71 km awayRokel RiverSierra Leone386 km430 m³/s297 km awayLittle Scarcies RiverSierra Leone262 km370 m³/s344 km awayCavalla River
Ivory Coast515 km580 m³/s463 km awayKonkouré RiverGuinea303 km640 m³/s471 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1659942) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth 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 | 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.
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Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
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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 
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit