River
Pilcomayo River
1,100 km from source to mouth · Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia.
Paraguay, Argentina and BoliviaFlows into Paraguay River1st longest in Paraguay
In numbers
Length
1,100km
Average flow
200m³/s
Basin
270,000km²
Drop
975m
from 1,030 m to 55 m
Countries
3
The journey
From source to mouth
1,100 km of river and 4 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,030 m
- 175 kmVillamontes39,800 people
- 1,025 kmSan Ignacio de Loyola International Bridge
- 1,026 kmClorinda15,000 people
- 1,030 kmAsunción1,482,200 people
- 1,100 kmParaguay Riverat 55 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River of South America
At the mouth it carries 200 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 12 seconds. It drops from 1,030 m to 55 m, 0.9 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 270,000 km², about the size of NZ. 963,000 people live in it. Highest water: from February to April; lowest: from July to October. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- AsunciónLargest city on its banks · 1,482,200 people
- Silvio Pettirossi International Airport (ASU)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 14 km from the cityCar hire at ASU airport (Asunción)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Pilcomayo River, month by month
Highest water: from February to April
Lowest water: from July to October. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 150 m³/s in the lowest month to 320 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
Pilcomayo River: the basin in numbers
113,765 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 963,000people live in the basin
- 8/km²people per km²
- 2,319maverage altitude of the basin
- 534mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 15.7°Caverage air temperature
- 4%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 30% Forest
- 2% Cropland
- 36% 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
Pilcomayo River: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
- 1Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Pilcomayo 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
Mountains at the source (1)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Loma Huaylla Pata13 km away1,963m
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
Pilcomayo River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Paraguay RiverArgentina2,621 km2.7 m³/sTributaries (5)
Also: Pilaya River, Chullqi Mayu, Tarapaya River, Turuchipa River, Santa Elena River
In the same basin
Uruguay4,880 km16,000 m³/sUruguay RiverUruguay1,790 km4.6 m³/sIguazu RiverArgentina1,320 km1,700 m³/sBermejoParaguay1,060 km340 m³/sGrande River
Brazil1,090 km2,000 m³/sTietê RiverBrazil1,150 km2,500 m³/sSalado RiverArgentina1,150 km15 m³/sParanaíba RiverBrazil900 km1,500 m³/sParanapanema RiverBrazil929 km1,200 m³/sApa RiverParaguay380 km130 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q270569) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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?
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rivers
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