River
Võhandu River
165 km from source to mouth · Estonia.
EstoniaFlows into Lake Pihkva1st longest in Estonia
In numbers
Length
165km
Average flow
11m³/s
Basin
1,402km²
Drop
85m
from 113 m to 28 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
165 km of river and 5 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSavernaat 113 m
- 0 kmSuurjärv0.4 km²
- 45 kmRõuge Rivertributary
- 54 kmLake Vagula5.7 km²
- 57 kmLake Tamula2.0 km²
- 144 kmRäpina2,066 people
- 165 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 Estonia
At the mouth it carries 11 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 224 seconds. It drops from 113 m to 28 m, 0.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,402 km². 32,000 people live in it. Highest water: April; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- RäpinaLargest city on its banks · 2,066 people
- Tartu Airport (TAY)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 51 km from the cityCar hire at TAY airport (Tartu)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water9 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to AugustThe best months to visit
Võhandu River, month by month
Highest water: April
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Best months to visit: from June to August.
From about 5.9 m³/s in the lowest month to 37 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
Võhandu River: the basin in numbers
1,445 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 32,000people live in the basin
- 23/km²people per km²
- 96maverage altitude of the basin
- 620mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 4.8°Caverage air temperature
- 12%protected areas
- 1.4%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 36% Forest
- 27% Cropland
- 5% 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
Võhandu River: what you find on the way
- 7WeirsLeevaku and 6 more
- 6Boat rampsVõõpsu sadama slipp, Slipp 1, Slipp 2 and 3 more
- 3MarinasVõõpsu Village Marina, Võõpsu Marina, Räpina Marina
- 8River beachesBeach Kooraste Suurjärve, Sõmerpalu beach, Järvere beach and 5 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Võhandu 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.
3lakes on its wayLakeyas
4mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (3)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Suurjärvkm 00.4km²
- Lake Vagulakm 37 · 12 m deep5.7km²
- Lake Tamulakm 402.0km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (4)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Laanemägi7.6 km away · prominence 40 m212m
- Kungusõ Hill15 km away162m
- Tõikamägi9.2 km away
- Munnimägi10 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.
Photos
Võhandu River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (7)
Also: Mädajõgi, Rõuge River, Pühäjõgi, Iskna River, Vahejõgi, Kokõ Stream, Karioja
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Russia430 km130 m³/s42 km awayEmajõgiEstonia100 km70 m³/s39 km awayPiusa RiverEstonia109 km5.1 m³/s25 km awayAhja RiverEstonia104 km72 m³/s38 km awayPedja RiverEstonia125 km11 m³/s76 km awayPõltsamaa RiverEstonia136 km16 m³/s80 km awayNarvaEstonia74 km400 m³/s150 km awayPärnu RiverEstonia145 km48 m³/s182 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q2094012) · 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, 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
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