River
Sobat River
306 km from source to mouth · South Sudan.
South SudanFlows into White Nile3rd longest in South Sudan
In numbers
Length
306km
Average flow
410m³/s
Basin
225,000km²
Drop
9m
from 403 m to 394 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
306 km of river and 2 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 403 m
- 9 kmPibor Rivertributary
- 9 kmBaro Rivertributary
- 306 kmWhite Nileat 394 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in South Sudan
At the mouth it carries 412 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 6.1 seconds. Its basin covers 225,000 km², about the size of GY. 6.0 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- MalakalLargest city on its banks · 160,765 people
- Malakal International Airport (MAK)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 3 km from the city
- From November to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Sobat River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from November to January.
From about 30 m³/s in the lowest month to 640 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
Sobat River: the basin in numbers
214,881 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 6.0millionpeople live in the basin
- 28/km²people per km²
- 716maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,024mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 25.6°Caverage air temperature
- 25%protected areas
- 0.1km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 17% Forest
- 6% Cropland
- 40% 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
Sobat River: what you find on the way
- 1River beachesWadh Nyachar/Wadh Wäär Joguol
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.6 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.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
White Nile
Sudan2,620 km880 m³/s
EthiopiaIn the same basin
Egypt6,650 km2,800 m³/sBlue NileSudan1,783 km1,500 m³/sKagera River
Uganda400 km350 m³/sAtbarah RiverSudan1,120 km370 m³/sBahr el Ghazal RiverSouth Sudan716 km2.0 m³/sTekezé RiverSudan608 km140 m³/sMara River
Tanzania395 km18 m³/sValley of the QueensEgypt4,302 km2,600 m³/sSemliki RiverUganda230 km240 m³/sRurubu RiverTanzania300 km100 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q821911) · 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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