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River

Velikaya

430 km from source to mouth · Russia.

RussiaRussiaFlows into Lake Pihkva

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouth
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

430km

Average flow

130m³/s

Basin

25,200km²

Drop

153m

from 181 m to 28 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

430 km of river and 50 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

181 m28 m
Sourceat 181 m0 km
Khvoyno1.5 km²28 km
Yasskoe5.0 km²87 km
Zverino0.9 km²90 km
Ozero Krugloye (lanaw sa Rusya, Pskovskaya Oblast', lat 56,59, long 28,56)0.4 km²170 km
Dolgoe0.8 km²180 km
Kamenets0.8 km²233 km
Lake Strechno0.5 km²248 km
Utroyatributary325 km
Schadritskoe0.6 km²347 km
Lake Pihkvaat 28 m430 km
0100200300430 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 181 m
  2. 0 kmBolshoy Vyaz2.3 km²
  3. 0 kmDevichye0.5 km²
  4. 5 kmKhodsho0.9 km²
  5. 12 kmVerhneje0.5 km²
  6. 12 kmPloskoe-Glubokoe0.3 km²
  7. 16 kmBolshoe Ostriyo2.7 km²
  8. 28 kmKhvoyno1.5 km²
  9. 31 kmBeloje0.6 km²
  10. 32 kmChenoe1.1 km²
  11. 34 kmOzero Atali0.3 km²
  12. 43 kmYazno6.0 km²
  13. 43 kmOrle0.3 km²
  14. 59 kmVerjato6.7 km²
  15. 63 kmZavolotskoe1.1 km²
  16. 64 kmLosno4.7 km²
  17. 68 kmBystroe1.1 km²
  18. 87 kmYasskoe5.0 km²
  19. 90 kmZverino0.9 km²
  20. 93 kmOzero Ostrovno (lanaw sa Rusya, Pskovskaya Oblast', lat 56,40, long 29,19)0.7 km²
  21. 97 kmEzerische2.8 km²
  22. 105 kmBeloe1.4 km²
  23. 106 kmAlolyatributary
  24. 116 kmNevedryankatributary
  25. 123 kmIdritsatributary
  26. 170 kmOzero Krugloye (lanaw sa Rusya, Pskovskaya Oblast', lat 56,59, long 28,56)0.4 km²
  27. 180 kmDolgoe0.8 km²
  28. 187 kmOpochka13,548 people
  29. 193 kmOzero Voyskoye0.3 km²
  30. 196 kmBryushkovo0.6 km²
  31. 210 kmKudkatributary
  32. 223 kmLugovkatributary
  33. 223 kmShesttributary
  34. 226 kmIssatributary
  35. 233 kmKamenets0.8 km²
  36. 241 kmSorottributary
  37. 248 kmLake Strechno0.5 km²
  38. 253 kmPettributary
  39. 278 kmZilupetributary
  40. 309 kmOstrov24,500 people
  41. 325 kmUtroyatributary
  42. 325 kmShchepetstributary
  43. 327 kmKukhvatributary
  44. 330 kmVedatributary
  45. 347 kmSchadritskoe0.6 km²
  46. 362 kmKudebtributary
  47. 374 kmSchepetstributary
  48. 396 kmMnogatributary
  49. 397 kmCheryokhatributary
  50. 403 kmPskov210,501 people
  51. 409 kmPskovatributary
  52. 430 kmLake Pihkvaat 28 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

River in Pskov Oblast, Russia, flows into Lake Peipus

At the mouth it carries 134 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 19 seconds. It drops from 181 m to 28 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 25,200 km², about the size of MK. 414,000 people live in it. Highest water, with the snowmelt: from April to June; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • PskovLargest city on its banks · 210,501 people
  • Princess Olga Pskov International Airport (PKV)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 6 km from the cityCar hire at TAY airport (Tartu)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • On the water17 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • Kayak and canoe1 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
  • From May to AugustThe best months to visit

Velikaya, month by month

Highest water: from April to June

Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Melting snow makes up much of its water. Best months to visit: from May to August.

87
-8°36 mmJan
87
-7°29 mmFeb
87
-3°32 mmMar
590
5°38 mmApr
550
12°49 mmMay
540
16°71 mmJun
270
17°82 mmJul
300
16°75 mmAug
310
11°66 mmSep
310
6°53 mmOct
220
0°54 mmNov
140
-5°46 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 87 m³/s in the lowest month to 590 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

Car hire at TAY airport (Tartu)Discover CarsSee 

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

Velikaya: the basin in numbers

25,064 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Free-flowingDams upstream can hold only 0.0% of a year's flow: the river still keeps its natural rhythm.
  • 414,000people live in the basin
  • 17/km²people per km²
  • 113maverage altitude of the basin
  • 636mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 4.7°Caverage air temperature
  • 13%protected areas
  • 1.6%covered by lakes

What covers the basin

  • 50% Forest
  • 27% Cropland
  • 14% 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

Velikaya: what you find on the way

  • 2Dams
  • 4Weirs
  • 2Waterfalls
  • 1Rapids
  • 1Boat ramps
  • 15Ferry piers
  • 1Marinas

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.0 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Velikaya 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.

  • 28lakes on its wayLakeyas

Lakes and reservoirs (28)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Bolshoy Vyazkm 02.3km²
  2. Yaznokm 366.0km²
  3. Verjatokm 506.7km²
  4. Losnokm 554.7km²
  5. Bystroekm 581.1km²
  6. Zverinokm 770.9km²
  7. Ezerischekm 822.8km²
  8. Beloekm 901.4km²

20 more on LakeyasLakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Velikaya: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Velikaya: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth22 km across

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

Velikaya in pictures

Velikaya in Selikhnovo
Skobar` · Public domain
Pskov. The ensemble of the Pskov Kremlin from the Velikaya river
Александр Байдуков · CC BY-SA 4.0
Selikhnovo village road signs, bridge over the Velikaya river
Alandislands · CC BY-SA 4.0
Velikaya river - Saint spring
Александр Сигачёв · CC0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (30)

Also: Zilupe, Utroya, Sorot, Cheryokha, Pskova, Alolya, Kukhva, Issa, Kudeb, Kudka, Idritsa, Nevedryanka, Mnoga, Veda, Shest, Smolinka, Vrevka, Ilovka, Pet, Chernitsa, Shchepets, Schepets, Lugovka, Kamenka

In the same basin

NarvaEstoniaEstonia74 km400 m³/sEmajõgiEstoniaEstonia100 km70 m³/sVõhandu RiverEstoniaEstonia165 km11 m³/sPedja RiverEstoniaEstonia125 km11 m³/sPiusa RiverEstoniaEstonia109 km5.1 m³/sPõltsamaa RiverEstoniaEstonia136 km16 m³/sAhja RiverEstoniaEstonia104 km72 m³/s

Nearby

Rivers nearby

Piusa RiverEstoniaEstonia109 km5.1 m³/s18 km awayVõhandu RiverEstoniaEstonia165 km11 m³/s42 km awayEmajõgiEstoniaEstonia100 km70 m³/s79 km awayAhja RiverEstoniaEstonia104 km72 m³/s79 km awayPedja RiverEstoniaEstonia125 km11 m³/s117 km awayPõltsamaa RiverEstoniaEstonia136 km16 m³/s121 km awayNarvaEstoniaEstonia74 km400 m³/s175 km awayLovatRussiaRussia530 km100 m³/s200 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q23550) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesLakeyas — 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.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit