River
Thompson River
489 km from source to mouth · Canada.
CanadaFlows into Fraser River
In numbers
Length
489km
Average flow
770m³/s
Basin
56,000km²
Drop
441m
from 600 m to 159 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
489 km of river and 30 stops on the way: 10 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 600 m
- 0 kmRainbow Falls
- 19 kmSugar Lake22 km²
- 20 kmBrenda Falls
- 50 kmShuswap Falls
- 88 kmMabel Lake59 km²
- 95 kmHidden Lake1.4 km²
- 149 kmRosemond Lake1.2 km²
- 163 kmMara Lake18 km²
- 236 kmShuswap Lake306 km²
- 248 kmLittle Shuswap Lake18 km²
- 248 kmAylmer Lake0.9 km²
- 258 kmNiskonlith Lake4.0 km²
- 297 kmDallas4,479 people
- 303 kmJuniper Ridge4,151 people
- 308 kmSahali13,493 people
- 310 kmKamloops97,902 people
- 310 kmNorth Thompson Rivertributary
- 310 kmSouth Thompson Rivertributary
- 311 kmWest End3,443 people
- 311 kmOverlanders Bridge
- 313 kmNorth Kamloops10,995 people
- 313 kmBatchelor Hills3,685 people
- 316 kmBrocklehurst16,713 people
- 355 kmKamloops Lake50 km²
- 363 kmDeadman Rivertributary
- 393 kmBonaparte Rivertributary
- 395 kmAshcroft1,558 people
- 433 kmNicola Rivertributary
- 437 kmMurray Creek Falls
- 473 kmLytton249 people
- 489 kmFraser Riverat 159 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in British Columbia, Canada
At the mouth it carries 773 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 3.2 seconds. It drops from 600 m to 159 m, 0.9 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 56,000 km², about the size of HR. 189,000 people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from March to April; lowest: from January to February and from July to August. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- KamloopsLargest city on its banks · 97,902 people
- Kamloops John Moose Fulton Field Regional Airport (YKA)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 8 km from the cityCar hire at YKA airport (Kamloops)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water25 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe54 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Thompson River, month by month
Highest water: from March to April
Lowest water: from January to February and from July to August. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to January. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 270 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,800 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
Thompson River: the basin in numbers
55,417 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 189,000people live in the basin
- 4/km²people per km²
- 1,251maverage altitude of the basin
- 594mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 3.0°Caverage air temperature
- 13%protected areas
- 2.9%covered by lakes
- 1%glaciers
- 2%permafrost
- 0.2km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 75% Forest
- 1% Cropland
- 5% Pasture
- 1% Ice
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
Thompson River: what you find on the way
- 7WaterfallsRainbow Falls, Chase Creek Falls, Bridal Veil Falls and 4 more
- 54RapidsBridge Rapids, Slough Rapids, Second Bridge Rapids and 51 more
- 17Boat rampsBristow Road Boat Launch, Valleyview Boat Launch, Pioneer Park Boat Launch and 14 more
- 5Ferry piers
- 2MarinasSicamous Houseboats, Bruker Marina on Kamloops Lake
- 11River beachesPublic Beach, Nielsen Beach, Musicians Beach and 8 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Thompson 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.
4waterfalls on the riverCascadyas
10lakes on its wayLakeyas
13mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Waterfalls (4)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Rainbow Fallskm 0
- Brenda Fallskm 19
- Shuswap Fallskm 49
- Murray Creek Fallskm 426
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (10)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Sugar Lakekm 1922km²
- Mabel Lakekm 8659km²
- Hidden Lakekm 921.4km²
- Mara Lakekm 15918km²
- Shuswap Lakekm 231 · 161 m deep306km²
- Little Shuswap Lakekm 24218km²
- Niskonlith Lakekm 2524.0km²
- Kamloops Lakekm 34650km²
2 more on LakeyasLakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (13)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Paul Peak2.7 km away527m
- Batchelor Hill7.8 km away
- Edith Hill12 km away
- Strawberry Hill14 km away
- Mara Hill11 km away
- Sugarloaf Hill10 km away
- Ironmask Hill8.1 km away
- Coal Hill6.1 km away
5 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
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
Thompson River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Fraser RiverCanada2,657 km3,500 m³/sTributaries (6)
Also: Nicola River, Bonaparte River, North Thompson River, Deadman River, South Thompson River, Nicoamen River
In the same basin
Nearby
Rivers nearby
United StatesWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q2143805) · 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 | Cascadyas, Lakeyas, 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit