River
Souris River
1,240 km from source to mouth · Canada and United States.
Canada and United StatesFlows into Assiniboine River8th longest in Canada
In numbers
Length
1,240km
Average flow
60m³/s
Basin
46,000km²
Drop
259m
from 598 m to 339 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
1,240 km of river and 11 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 598 m
- 154 kmWeyburn11,019 people
- 174 kmNickle Lake3.9 km²
- 280 kmMcDonald Lake29 km²
- 292 kmEstevan11,258 people
- 295 kmLong Creektributary
- 611 kmDes Lacs Rivertributary
- 621 kmMinot48,377 people
- 770 kmElliott Bridge
- 927 kmAntler Rivertributary
- 1,056 kmPlum Creektributary
- 1,056 kmSouris Swinging Bridge
- 1,240 kmAssiniboine Riverat 339 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Watercourse in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada, and North Dakota (USA)
At the mouth it carries 60 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 41 seconds. It drops from 598 m to 339 m, 0.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 46,000 km², about the size of EE. 164,000 people live in it. Highest water: June; lowest: from December to March. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 66% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- MinotLargest city on its banks · 48,377 people
- Minot International Airport (MOT)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 3 km from the cityCar hire at MOT airport (Minot)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water15 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Souris River, month by month
Highest water: June
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to March. Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 48 m³/s in the lowest month to 73 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
Souris River: the basin in numbers
60,502 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 164,000people live in the basin
- 3/km²people per km²
- 558maverage altitude of the basin
- 417mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 3.1°Caverage air temperature
- 4%protected areas
- 1.1%covered by lakes
- 1.3km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 4% Forest
- 67% Cropland
- 18% 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
Souris River: what you find on the way
- 18WeirsBurlington Dam 3, Tierrecita Vallejo Dam, Minot Water Supply Dam and 15 more
- 15Boat rampsTalbott Court Canoe launch, East Side Estates Canoe Launch and 13 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Souris 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.
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Nickle Lakekm 1183.9km²
- McDonald Lakekm 19029km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
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
Souris River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Assiniboine RiverCanada1,275 km45 m³/sTributaries (4)
Also: Antler River, Des Lacs River, Plum Creek, Long Creek
In the same basin
Canada644 km2,800 m³/sSaskatchewan RiverCanada547 km700 m³/sNorth Saskatchewan RiverCanada1,380 km240 m³/sSouth Saskatchewan RiverCanada1,000 km250 m³/sRed River of the NorthCanada890 km260 m³/sBow RiverCanada587 km130 m³/sRed Deer RiverCanada801 km70 m³/sOldman RiverCanada445 km95 m³/sWinnipeg RiverCanada298 km950 m³/sQu'Appelle RiverCanada743 km14 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q487925) · 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 — 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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