River
Roanoke River
660 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Albemarle Sound
In numbers
Length
660km
Average flow
310m³/s
Basin
25,000km²
Drop
363m
from 363 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
660 km of river and 18 stops on the way: 9 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmBlue Ridge Mountainsat 363 m
- 9 kmSpring Hollow Reservoir0.4 km²
- 27 kmSalem25,432 people
- 38 kmMemorial Bridge
- 42 kmRoanoke100,011 people
- 48 kmVinton8,231 people
- 109 kmSmith Mountain Lake71 km²
- 138 kmLeesville Lake8.9 km²
- 156 kmAltavista3,474 people
- 163 kmMansion Truss Bridge
- 298 kmDan Rivertributary
- 310 kmClarksville1,300 people
- 343 kmKerr Lake181 km²
- 345 kmBuggs Island
- 401 kmLake Gaston69 km²
- 416 kmRoanoke Rapids Lake16 km²
- 422 kmRoanoke Rapids15,345 people
- 576 kmWilliamston5,508 people
- 629 kmPlymouth3,658 people
- 660 kmAlbemarle Soundat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Virginia and North Carolina, United States
At the mouth it carries 312 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 8.0 seconds. It drops from 363 m to 0 m, 0.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 25,000 km², about the size of MK. 969,000 people live in it. Highest water: from January to March. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 69% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- RoanokeLargest city on its banks · 100,011 people
- Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport (ROA)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 7 km from the cityCar hire at ROA airport (Roanoke)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water80 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe4 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From April to June and from September to OctoberThe best months to visit
Roanoke River, month by month
Highest water: from January to March
Best months to visit: from April to June and from September to October.
From about 130 m³/s in the lowest month to 660 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
Roanoke River: the basin in numbers
24,470 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 969,000people live in the basin
- 40/km²people per km²
- 228maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,122mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 13.7°Caverage air temperature
- 2%protected areas
- 1.7%covered by lakes
- 6.7km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 72% Forest
- 17% Cropland
- 4% Pasture
- 2% 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
Roanoke River: what you find on the way
- 4Weirs
- 4RapidsFish Trap and 3 more
- 57Boat rampsHardy Ford public boat ramp, Hales Ford public boat ramp, Staunton River Boat Launch and 54 more
- 2Ferry piersSans Souci Ferry
- 18MarinasBay Rock Marina, Mooman's Marina, Indian Pointe Marina and 15 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.0 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Roanoke 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.
6lakes on its wayLakeyas
23mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (6)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Spring Hollow Reservoirkm 80.4km²
- Smith Mountain Lakekm 9571km²
- Leesville Lakekm 1218.9km²
- Kerr Lakekm 299181km²
- Lake Gastonkm 350 · 29 m deep69km²
- Roanoke Rapids Lakekm 36316km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (23)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Poor Mountain7.8 km away · prominence 441 m1,197m
- Fort Lewis Mountain9.2 km away · prominence 421 m994m
- Twelve O'clock Knob12 km away814m
- Acre of Rocks7.6 km away
- Bear Knob9.2 km away
- Bent Mountain14 km away
- Brush Mountain14 km away
- Bull Run Knob14 km away
15 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
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 (15)
Also: Dan River, Blackwater River, Browns Dan River, Cub Creek, Falling River, Goose Creek, Hyco River, Little Dan River, Little Falling River, Pigg River, Roanoke Creek, Sandy Creek, Seneca River, South Fork Mayo River, Stinking River
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1584933) · 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 — 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.
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Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit