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River

Samara

594 km from source to mouth · Russia.

RussiaRussiaFlows into Volga

Follow the riverMonth by month

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

In numbers

Length

594km

Average flow

50m³/s

Basin

46,500km²

Drop

182m

from 205 m to 23 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

594 km of river and 31 stops on the way: 11 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

205 m23 m
Obshchy Syrtat 205 m0 km
Perevolotskiy9,667 people37 km
Bolshoy Urantributary154 km
Sorochinskoe Reservoir13 km²158 km
Pogromkatributary239 km
Buzuluktributary266 km
Borovkatributary318 km
Syezzhayatributary418 km
Domashkatributary457 km
Samara1,154,223 people553 km
Volgaat 23 m594 km
0200400594 km
  1. 0 kmObshchy Syrtat 205 m
  2. 37 kmPerevolotskiy9,667 people
  3. 95 kmNovosergiyevka13,188 people
  4. 99 kmKuvaytributary
  5. 154 kmBolshoy Urantributary
  6. 158 kmSorochinskoe Reservoir13 km²
  7. 162 kmUranchiktributary
  8. 163 kmSorochinsk30,731 people
  9. 192 kmMaly Urantributary
  10. 196 kmSorochkatributary
  11. 206 kmSorokatributary
  12. 207 kmTotskoye7,161 people
  13. 239 kmPogromkatributary
  14. 248 kmKrasnogvardeyets3,836 people
  15. 266 kmBuzuluktributary
  16. 266 kmToktributary
  17. 292 kmVinnayatributary
  18. 318 kmBorovkatributary
  19. 350 kmBorskoye9,119 people
  20. 386 kmBogatoye6,391 people
  21. 418 kmSyezzhayatributary
  22. 437 kmUtevka4,556 people
  23. 457 kmDomashkatributary
  24. 484 kmSpiridonovka4,387 people
  25. 509 kmBolshoy Kineltributary
  26. 513 kmAlekseyevka10,737 people
  27. 528 kmTrostyamoye Lake1.6 km²
  28. 536 kmKirov vehicle bridge
  29. 551 kmOzero Gatnoye1.3 km²
  30. 553 kmSamara1,154,223 people
  31. 555 kmFrunzensky Bridge
  32. 559 kmOzero Peschanoye (lanaw sa Rusya, Samarskaya Oblast', lat 53,20, long 50,04)0.6 km²
  33. 594 kmVolgaat 23 m

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

River in Russia, tributary of the Volga

At the mouth it carries 50 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 50 seconds. It drops from 205 m to 23 m, 0.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 46,500 km², about the size of BT. 1.3 million people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: April; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • SamaraLargest city on its banks · 1,154,223 people
  • Kurumoch International Airport (KUF)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 36 km from the city
  • On the water12 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit

Samara, month by month

Highest water: April

Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to March. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from May to September.

17
-13°38 mmJan
17
-13°28 mmFeb
17
-6°27 mmMar
1,000
7°30 mmApr
870
15°28 mmMay
810
19°54 mmJun
210
21°53 mmJul
210
20°38 mmAug
220
14°42 mmSep
300
5°48 mmOct
210
-3°48 mmNov
130
-9°45 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 17 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,000 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

Samara: the basin in numbers

46,454 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Free-flowingDams upstream can hold only 0.0% of a year's flow: the river still keeps its natural rhythm.
  • 1.3millionpeople live in the basin
  • 30/km²people per km²
  • 155maverage altitude of the basin
  • 487mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 4.2°Caverage air temperature
  • 6%protected areas
  • 0.2%covered by lakes

What covers the basin

  • 6% Forest
  • 51% Cropland
  • 30% 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

Samara: what you find on the way

  • 1Dams
  • 3Weirs
  • 1Locks
  • 1Boat ramps
  • 7Ferry piers
  • 2Marinas
  • 2Boat rentals
  • 4River beaches

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Samara 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.

  • 4lakes on its wayLakeyas

Lakes and reservoirs (4)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Sorochinskoe Reservoirkm 13213km²
  2. Trostyamoye Lakekm 4441.6km²
  3. Ozero Gatnoyekm 4641.3km²
  4. Ozero Peschanoye (lanaw sa Rusya, Samarskaya Oblast', lat 53,20, long 50,04)km 4700.6km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Samara: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Samara: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth29 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.

Photos

Samara in pictures

South bridge Samara
Atgnclk · CC BY-SA 3.0
Old bridge Samara
Atgnclk · CC BY-SA 3.0
New elevator in Samara, view from the Samara River
Elias0207 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Samara Riverbank 01 (4136133001)
michael clarke stuff · CC BY-SA 2.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (31)

Also: Bolshoy Kinel, Tok, Buzuluk, Borovka, Maly Uran, Bolshoy Uran, Kuvay, Syezzhaya, Vinnaya, Gryaznushka, Soroka, Sorochka, Uranchik, Bezymyanka, Vetlyanka, Vorobyovka, Koltubanka, Lebyazhka, Manyazhka, Soldatka, Taneevka, Makhovka, Domashka, Vyazovka

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q649527) · 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