River
Onega
416 km from source to mouth · Russia.
RussiaFlows into Onega Bay
In numbers
Length
416km
Average flow
500m³/s
Basin
56,900km²
Drop
202m
from 104 m to -98 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
416 km of river and 20 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmLachaat 104 m
- 2 kmLacha300 km²
- 6 kmKargopol’10,966 people
- 25 kmPorog Ol'khovets
- 36 kmVoloshkatributary
- 57 kmChucheksatributary
- 57 kmLeybushatributary
- 100 kmKenatributary
- 162 kmMoshatributary
- 175 kmIksatributary
- 256 kmNizhnyaya Telzatributary
- 258 kmVerkhnyaya Telzatributary
- 271 kmShomokshatributary
- 294 kmNizhnyaya Rochevatributary
- 315 kmNyulnyugatributary
- 322 kmKodinatributary
- 325 kmMudyugatributary
- 362 kmKozhatributary
- 394 kmOnega22,693 people
- 401 kmAndatributary
- 401 kmVongudatributary
- 416 kmOnega Bayat -98 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia
At the mouth it carries 505 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 5.0 seconds. It drops from 104 m to -98 m, 0.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 56,900 km², about the size of TG. 152,000 people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from May to June; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- OnegaLargest city on its banks · 22,693 people
- Talagi Airport (ARH)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 148 km from the city
- On the water9 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to AugustThe best months to visit
Onega, month by month
Highest water: from May to June
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from November to March. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from June to August.
From about 260 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
Onega: the basin in numbers
63,771 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 152,000people live in the basin
- 2/km²people per km²
- 128maverage altitude of the basin
- 622mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 1.5°Caverage air temperature
- 7%protected areas
- 2.2%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 81% Forest
- 2% Cropland
- 3% 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
Onega: what you find on the way
- 1Waterfalls
- 9Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Onega 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.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
1lake on its wayLakeyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Porog Ol'khovetskm 25
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lachakm 2 · 5 m deep300km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
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 (35)
Also: Voloshka, Kodina, Kena, Kozha, Mosha, Mudyuga, Shomoksha, Vonguda, Anda, Nyulnyuga, Nizhnyaya Telza, Verkhnyaya Telza, Chucheksa, Cheshyuga, Ektysha, Nizhnyaya Rocheva, Leybusha, Udrega, Churoksa, Lizhenga, Nizhny Ig, Ochenga, Telmentsa, Pindesha
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q78898) · 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 | Cascadyas, Lakeyas — 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.



