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River

Red River

2,189 km from source to mouth · United States.

United StatesUnited StatesFlows into Atchafalaya River5th longest in United States

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouthShreveport
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

2,189km

Average flow

1,900m³/s

Basin

233,000km²

Drop

1,370m

from 1,376 m to 6 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

2,189 km of river and 45 stops on the way: 10 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

1,376 m6 m
Buck Creekat 1,376 m0 km
Canyon14,887 people164 km
Prairie Dog Town Fork Red Rivertributary421 km
Salt Fork Red Rivertributary503 km
Hubert H. Moss Lake3.8 km²857 km
Leeper Lake0.5 km²868 km
Forty-one Cut-off Lake0.9 km²1,251 km
Roseborough Lake0.5 km²1,377 km
Shreveport187,593 people1,630 km
Alexandria45,275 people1,869 km
Atchafalaya Riverat 6 m2,189 km
05001,0001,5002,189 km
  1. 0 kmBuck Creekat 1,376 m
  2. 106 kmHereford15,021 people
  3. 164 kmCanyon14,887 people
  4. 421 kmPrairie Dog Town Fork Red Rivertributary
  5. 503 kmSalt Fork Red Rivertributary
  6. 529 kmNorth Fork Red Rivertributary
  7. 564 kmPease Rivertributary
  8. 617 kmBurkburnett11,043 people
  9. 646 kmCache Creektributary
  10. 669 kmWichita Rivertributary
  11. 676 kmState Highway 79 Bridge at the Red River
  12. 833 kmLove County10,146 people
  13. 857 kmHubert H. Moss Lake3.8 km²
  14. 868 kmLeeper Lake0.5 km²
  15. 977 kmRandell Lake0.6 km²
  16. 978 kmLake Texoma263 km²
  17. 1,034 kmState Highway No. 78 Bridge at the Red River
  18. 1,083 kmBlue Rivertributary
  19. 1,129 kmRoebuck Lake0.4 km²
  20. 1,182 kmKiamichi Rivertributary
  21. 1,251 kmForty-one Cut-off Lake0.9 km²
  22. 1,377 kmRoseborough Lake0.5 km²
  23. 1,435 kmLittle Rivertributary
  24. 1,481 kmGarland195 people
  25. 1,481 kmRed River Bridge
  26. 1,500 kmCandler Lake0.9 km²
  27. 1,542 kmSulphur Rivertributary
  28. 1,561 kmOld River0.5 km²
  29. 1,573 kmRed River LA 2 Bridge
  30. 1,630 kmShreveport187,593 people
  31. 1,631 kmLong-Allen Bridge (Shreveport)
  32. 1,631 kmKCS Shreveport Bridge
  33. 1,632 kmBossier City68,094 people
  34. 1,658 kmOld River Lake0.8 km²
  35. 1,696 kmCrichton Lake0.3 km²
  36. 1,699 kmWilson Lake0.4 km²
  37. 1,758 kmRound Lake0.6 km²
  38. 1,779 kmSaline Bayoutributary
  39. 1,787 kmDunn Lake0.5 km²
  40. 1,803 kmChico Lake0.4 km²
  41. 1,821 kmCane Rivertributary
  42. 1,838 kmMill Pond0.7 km²
  43. 1,839 kmBoyce888 people
  44. 1,869 kmPineville14,403 people
  45. 1,869 kmAlexandria45,275 people
  46. 2,000 kmGrand Bay0.5 km²
  47. 2,189 kmAtchafalaya Riverat 6 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

Major river in the southern United States

At the mouth it carries 1,900 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.3 seconds. It drops from 1,376 m to 6 m, 0.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 233,000 km², about the size of UG. 3.2 million people live in it. Highest water: March, from May to June and December. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 63% of a year's flow.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • ShreveportLargest city on its banks · 187,593 people
  • Shreveport Regional Airport (SHV)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 12 km from the cityCar hire at SHV airport (Shreveport)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • On the water54 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • From April to June and from September to OctoberThe best months to visit

Red River, month by month

Highest water: March, from May to June and December

Best months to visit: from April to June and from September to October.

2,700
5°57 mmJan
2,700
8°65 mmFeb
2,800
12°79 mmMar
2,700
17°84 mmApr
3,700
21°117 mmMay
3,500
26°97 mmJun
2,300
28°74 mmJul
1,100
27°70 mmAug
660
24°92 mmSep
1,000
18°81 mmOct
2,000
11°72 mmNov
3,000
7°70 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 660 m³/s in the lowest month to 3,700 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

Car hire at SHV airport (Shreveport)Discover CarsSee 

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

Red River: the basin in numbers

239,161 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

DammedReservoirs can hold 63% of a year's flow: much of the river is a chain of lakes.
  • 3.2millionpeople live in the basin
  • 14/km²people per km²
  • 319maverage altitude of the basin
  • 1,022mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 16.6°Caverage air temperature
  • 3%protected areas
  • 1.0%covered by lakes
  • 44km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 40% Forest
  • 27% Cropland
  • 27% Pasture
  • 1% Towns and cities

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

Red River: what you find on the way

  • 71DamsUmbarger Dam, McSpadden Lake Dam, Palo Duro Club Lake Dam and 68 more
  • 2Weirs
  • 17LocksJoe D. Waggonner, Jr. Lock and Dam, Red River, Russell B. Long Lock and Dam and 14 more
  • 1WaterfallsRiver Falls
  • 47Boat rampsIndex Bridge Boat Ramp and 46 more
  • 7MarinasCedar Bayou Marina at Lake Texoma, Cedar Mills Marina and Resort, Mill Creek Resort and Marina and 4 more

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Red 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.

  • 17lakes on its wayLakeyas

Lakes and reservoirs (17)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Hubert H. Moss Lakekm 7683.8km²
  2. Leeper Lakekm 7780.5km²
  3. Lake Texomakm 877263km²
  4. Forty-one Cut-off Lakekm 1,1220.9km²
  5. Candler Lakekm 1,3450.9km²
  6. Old River Lakekm 1,4870.8km²
  7. Chico Lakekm 1,6170.4km²
  8. Mill Pondkm 1,6480.7km²

9 more on LakeyasLakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Red River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Red River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth67 km across

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

It flows into

Atchafalaya RiverUnited StatesUnited States270 km240 m³/s

Tributaries (29)

Also: Washita River, Cane River, Sulphur River, Kiamichi River, Wichita River, Blue River, Cache Creek, Little River, Saline Bayou, Muddy Boggy Creek, North Fork Red River, Pease River, Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River, Salt Fork Red River, Big Mineral Creek, Big Pine Creek, Buck Creek, Cross Bayou, Glover River, Groesbeck Creek, Island Bayou, Pecan Bayou, Sanders Creek, Wanderers Creek

In the same basin

Mississippi RiverUnited StatesUnited States3,766 km12,700 m³/sMissouri RiverUnited StatesUnited States3,726 km2,500 m³/sOhio RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,579 km8,000 m³/sArkansas RiverUnited StatesUnited States2,364 km240 m³/sTennessee RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,049 km2,000 m³/sYellowstone RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,114 km390 m³/sPlatte RiverUnited StatesUnited States500 km200 m³/sCanadian RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,458 km200 m³/sIllinois RiverUnited StatesUnited States432 km660 m³/sAllegheny RiverUnited StatesUnited States523 km560 m³/s

Nearby

Rivers nearby

Mississippi RiverUnited StatesUnited States3,766 km12,700 m³/s316 km awaySabine RiverUnited StatesUnited States820 km270 m³/s231 km awayArkansas RiverUnited StatesUnited States2,364 km240 m³/s311 km awayWhite RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,162 km740 m³/s332 km awayTrinity RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,140 km210 m³/s320 km awayAlabama RiverUnited StatesUnited States640 km950 m³/s358 km awayMobile RiverUnited StatesUnited States72 km1,900 m³/s352 km awayBrazos RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,352 km240 m³/s427 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q156032) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesLakeyas — 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.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit