River
Nueces River
507 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Gulf of Mexico
In numbers
Length
507km
Average flow
30m³/s
Basin
41,439km²
Drop
531m
from 531 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
507 km of river and 4 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 531 m
- 94 kmState Highway 3 Bridge at the Nueces River
- 240 kmCotulla4,216 people
- 380 kmFrio Rivertributary
- 443 kmLake Corpus Christi59 km²
- 507 kmGulf of Mexicoat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Texas, United States
At the mouth it carries 30 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 84 seconds. It drops from 531 m to 0 m, 1.0 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 41,439 km², about the size of NL. 223,000 people live in it. Highest water: October. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 211% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- CotullaLargest city on its banks · 4,216 people
- Laredo International Airport (LRD)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 102 km from the cityCar hire in LaredoDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water7 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From February to April and from October to NovemberThe best months to visit
Nueces River, month by month
Highest water: October
Best months to visit: from February to April and from October to November.
From about 8.2 m³/s in the lowest month to 70 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
Nueces River: the basin in numbers
43,567 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 223,000people live in the basin
- 5/km²people per km²
- 238maverage altitude of the basin
- 615mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 20.9°Caverage air temperature
- 1%protected areas
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 2.0km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 24% Forest
- 15% Cropland
- 69% 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
Nueces River: what you find on the way
- 1WeirsCalallen Reservoir Dam
- 7Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Nueces 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
7mountains at the sourcePeakyas
1island off the mouthIslandyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Corpus Christikm 46859km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (7)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Perkins Mountain10 km away
- Schoolhouse Mountain7.9 km away
- Seep Spring Mountain8.6 km away
- Bullhead Mountain12 km away
- Turnpike Mountain9.2 km away
- Graveyard Mountain4.3 km away
- Hog Pen Mountain13 km away
Islands off the mouth (1)
Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas
- Ward Island26 km away
Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗
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
Nueces River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (2)
Also: Frio River, Turkey Creek
Nearby
Rivers nearby
United States1,387 km21,700 m³/s172 km awayRio GrandeUnited States3,051 km85 m³/s215 km awayBrazos RiverUnited States1,352 km240 m³/s238 km awayTrinity RiverUnited States1,140 km210 m³/s346 km awayPecos RiverUnited States1,560 km8.0 m³/s427 km awaySabine RiverUnited States820 km270 m³/s433 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1468723) · 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, Islandyas — 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?
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