River
Tâmega River
184 km from source to mouth · Portugal and Spain.
Portugal and SpainFlows into Douro River7th longest in Portugal
In numbers
Length
184km
Average flow
69m³/s
Basin
3,310km²
Drop
431m
from 446 m to 15 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
184 km of river and 17 stops on the way: 10 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 446 m
- 19 kmVerín13,817 people
- 44 kmSanta Cruz3,430 people
- 47 kmRoman Bridge of Chaves
- 47 kmChaves41,243 people
- 63 kmVidago5,300 people
- 94 kmPonte de Arame
- 95 kmSobreira4,219 people
- 95 kmRibeira de Pena5,887 people
- 105 kmPonte de Cavez do Rio Tâmega
- 123 kmMondim de Basto7,493 people
- 124 kmCabril Rivertributary
- 147 kmAmarante6,782 people
- 158 kmTâmega railway bridge
- 159 kmMarco de Canavezes9,042 people
- 177 kmAlpendurada8,485 people
- 177 kmBarragem de Torrão
- 180 kmPonte Duarte Pacheco
- 184 kmDouro Riverat 15 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Spain and Portugal
At the mouth it carries 69 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 36 seconds. It drops from 446 m to 15 m, 2.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 3,310 km², about the size of CV. 3.0 million people live in it. Highest water: from January to March; lowest: from June to September. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (43% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- ChavesLargest city on its banks · 41,243 people
- Vila Real Airport (VRL)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 56 km from the cityCar hire at VGO airport (Vigo)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water20 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Tâmega River, month by month
Highest water: from January to March
Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 100 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,400 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
Tâmega River: the basin in numbers
96,093 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 3.0millionpeople live in the basin
- 31/km²people per km²
- 888maverage altitude of the basin
- 633mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 11.2°Caverage air temperature
- 7%protected areas
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 8.6km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 34% Forest
- 42% Cropland
- 15% 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
Tâmega River: what you find on the way
- 57WeirsAçude da Veiga and 56 more
- 2Locks
- 6Waterfalls
- 7Boat rampsEnbarcadoiro fluvial de Verín, Cais de Sardoura and 5 more
- 3Ferry piersPraia Fluvial do Castelo, Ilha do Castelo, Cais de Bitetos
- 9MarinasCais do Castelo, Cais de Escamarão, Fluvina de Bitetos and 6 more
- 12River beachesPraia Fluvial de Vidago, Praia Fluvial de Cavez, Praia Fluvial de Caneiro and 9 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Tâmega 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.
4mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (4)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Serra de San Mamede11 km away
- Alto da Medorra6.8 km away
- Alto de Espireiras2.8 km away
- Serra do Fial das Corzas14 km away
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
Douro RiverPortugal897 km680 m³/sTributaries (5)
Also: Cabril River, río Búbal, Rio Ovelha, Beça river, Olo River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Portugal148 km62 m³/s51 km awayMinho RiverPortugal315 km340 m³/s103 km awayLima RiverPortugal135 km75 m³/s81 km awayMondego RiverPortugal234 km110 m³/s114 km awayÁgueda RiverPortugal176 km23 m³/s115 km awayTormesSpain284 km42 m³/s154 km awaySilisSpain228 km240 m³/s160 km awayTagus RiverPortugal1,007 km500 m³/s244 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q14608) · 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 | 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?
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