River
St. Clair River
65 km from source to mouth · United States and Canada.
United States and CanadaFlows into Lake Saint Clair
In numbers
Length
65km
Average flow
5,200m³/s
Basin
3,776km²
Drop
2m
from 175 m to 173 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
65 km of river and 15 stops on the way: 9 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmLake Huronat 175 m
- 3 kmLake Huron59,399 km²
- 3 kmBlue Water Bridge
- 6 kmSarnia72,320 people
- 6 kmPort Huron28,983 people
- 7 kmSt. Clair Tunnel
- 9 kmBlack Rivertributary
- 15 kmMarysville9,757 people
- 16 kmCorunna5,686 people
- 23 kmSt. Clair5,464 people
- 24 kmSaint Clair5,485 people
- 35 kmMarine City4,079 people
- 46 kmWalpole Island Upper A34 Lighthouse
- 47 kmWalpole Island1,878 people
- 47 kmAlgonac4,055 people
- 47 kmWalpole Island Lower A32 Lighthouse
- 65 kmLake Saint Clairat 173 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in North America on the boundary of Michigan and Ontario
At the mouth it carries 5,200 m³/s on average: 2.1 Olympic pools every second. Its basin covers 3,776 km², about the size of CV. 15.0 million people live in it. Highest water: from April to June; lowest: from January to February. Its dams hold back little of its water (7.0% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- SarniaLargest city on its banks · 72,320 people
- Windsor International Airport (YQG)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 90 km from the cityCar hire at YQG airport (Windsor)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water48 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe1 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
St. Clair River, month by month
Highest water: from April to June
Lowest water: from January to February. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from January to February. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 8,500 m³/s in the lowest month to 9,800 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
St. Clair River: the basin in numbers
579,461 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 15.0millionpeople live in the basin
- 27/km²people per km²
- 269maverage altitude of the basin
- 829mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 5.0°Caverage air temperature
- 9%protected areas
- 38.0%covered by lakes
- 20km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 43% Forest
- 14% Cropland
- 3% 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
St. Clair River: what you find on the way
- 1Canoe put-ins
- 23Boat rampsU.S. Coast Guard - Station Port Huron, Public Boat Ramp, Public Boat Launch and 20 more
- 6Ferry piersFerry terminal Walpole–Algonac Ferry, Russell Island Ferry, Harsen's Island Ferry Landing and 3 more
- 19MarinasCoast Guard Basin, Bridgeview Marina, River Street Marina and 16 more
- 1River beachesCanatara Beach
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
St. Clair 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.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Huronkm 3 · 230 m deep59,399km²
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
St. Clair River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (2)
Also: Black River, Belle River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
United States45 km5.3 m³/s66 km awayCuyahoga RiverUnited States137 km29 m³/s138 km awayNiagara RiverCanada53 km5.8 m³/s305 km awayAllegheny RiverUnited States523 km560 m³/s320 km awayMonongahela RiverUnited States209 km360 m³/s320 km awayKanawha RiverUnited States156 km430 m³/s412 km awayScioto RiverUnited States372 km190 m³/s422 km awayKentucky RiverUnited States417 km280 m³/s476 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1054325) · 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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