River
Patuca River
500 km from source to mouth · Honduras.
HondurasFlows into Caribbean Sea2nd longest in Honduras
In numbers
Length
500km
Average flow
450m³/s
Basin
23,900km²
Drop
265m
from 265 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
500 km of river and 0 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 265 m
- 500 kmCaribbean Seaat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Honduras
At the mouth it carries 448 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 5.6 seconds. It drops from 265 m to 0 m, 0.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 23,900 km², about the size of DJ. 632,000 people live in it. Highest water: from July to September; lowest: from February to May. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Barra PatucaLargest city on its banks · 2,758 people
- La Laguna Airport (GJA)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 188 km from the cityCar hire at RTB airport (Coxen Hole)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water6 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From January to MarchThe best months to visit
Patuca River, month by month
Highest water: from July to September
Lowest water: from February to May. Best months to visit: from January to March.
From about 240 m³/s in the lowest month to 670 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
Patuca River: the basin in numbers
23,513 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 632,000people live in the basin
- 27/km²people per km²
- 603maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,651mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 24.0°Caverage air temperature
- 37%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 70% Forest
- 12% Cropland
- 11% 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
Patuca River: what you find on the way
- 5Boat ramps
- 1MarinasValencia Lugar Donde Empieza la Vía Marítima del Río Patuca
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.0 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.
Photos
Patuca River in pictures
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Honduras780 km760 m³/s151 km awayRío Grande de Matagalpa
Nicaragua465 km600 m³/s332 km awayUlúa RiverHonduras358 km440 m³/s368 km awayMotagua River
Guatemala486 km310 m³/s424 km awayBelize River
Belize290 km200 m³/s467 km awayGoascorán River
El Salvador130 km33 m³/s464 km awayDulce RiverGuatemala43 km340 m³/s490 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q3492681) · 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 |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
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