River
Niobrara River
915 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Missouri River
In numbers
Length
915km
Average flow
1,000m³/s
Basin
29,992km²
Drop
1,071m
from 1,437 m to 366 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
915 km of river and 6 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,437 m
- 176 kmAngostura Reservoir16 km²
- 536 kmLake Oahe1,093 km²
- 545 kmPierre14,091 people
- 656 kmLake Sharpe228 km²
- 857 kmNiobrara River Bridge
- 858 kmNiobrara365 people
- 915 kmMissouri Riverat 366 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Wyoming and Nebraska in the United States, that is a tributary of the Missouri River
At the mouth it carries 1,041 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 2.4 seconds. It drops from 1,437 m to 366 m, 1.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 29,992 km², about the size of AM. 1.4 million people live in it. Highest water: June; lowest: from December to February. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 294% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- PierreLargest city on its banks · 14,091 people
- Pierre Regional Airport (PIR)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 5 km from the cityCar hire at RAP airport (Rapid City)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water44 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Niobrara River, month by month
Highest water: June
Lowest water: from December to February. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 370 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,400 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
Niobrara River: the basin in numbers
669,464 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.4millionpeople live in the basin
- 2/km²people per km²
- 1,146maverage altitude of the basin
- 397mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 5.7°Caverage air temperature
- 6%protected areas
- 0.8%covered by lakes
- 96km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 15% Forest
- 24% Cropland
- 56% 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
Niobrara River: what you find on the way
- 43Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Niobrara 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.
3lakes on its wayLakeyas
5mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (3)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Angostura Reservoirkm 19816km²
- Lake Oahekm 605 · 62 m deep1,093km²
- Lake Sharpekm 741228km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (5)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Butler Hills12 km away
- Chalk Buttes14 km away
- Flat Top14 km away
- Lone Tree Hill15 km away
- Shelton Peak6.7 km away
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
Niobrara River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Missouri RiverUnited States3,726 km2,500 m³/sTributaries (7)
Also: Keya Paha River, Snake River, Long Pine Creek, Verdigre Creek, Coon Creek, Laughing Water Creek, Beeman Creek
In the same basin
United States3,766 km12,700 m³/sOhio RiverUnited States1,579 km8,000 m³/sArkansas RiverUnited States2,364 km240 m³/sTennessee RiverUnited States1,049 km2,000 m³/sRed RiverUnited States2,189 km1,900 m³/sYellowstone RiverUnited States1,114 km390 m³/sPlatte RiverUnited States500 km200 m³/sCanadian RiverUnited States1,458 km200 m³/sIllinois RiverUnited States432 km660 m³/sAllegheny RiverUnited States523 km560 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
United States1,143 km18 m³/s65 km awayWhite RiverUnited States933 km990 m³/s154 km awayPlatte RiverUnited States500 km200 m³/s264 km awayNorth Platte RiverUnited States1,152 km38 m³/s285 km awayCheyenne RiverUnited States475 km65 m³/s309 km awaySmoky Hill RiverUnited States925 km69 m³/s426 km awayMinnesota RiverUnited States534 km120 m³/s459 km awayKansas RiverUnited States238 km210 m³/s499 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1124558) · 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 | Lakeyas, 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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