General Rappahannock River Information
The 184-mile-long Rappahannock River flows within a drainage basin that covers parts of 18 Virginia counties on its easterly trek from the Appalachian Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay.
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Listed as a Virginia State Scenic River and an American Heritage River, the Rappahannock has gained nationwide notoriety as a tourist attraction and naturalist's dream. Along its path, the river supports a vast number of commercial and game fish, waterfowl, and riverside wildlife. |
| Because the river winds over the Piedmont region (west of Fredericksburg) and the Coastal Plain, the Rappahannock drainage basin is typically divided into an upper and lower half. The fall line, or upper navigable limit, of the Rappahannock is located in the City of Fredericksburg. Most of the data collected by the USGS, EPA, and other state and federal agencies tends to make this dual basin distinction. |  |
General Basin Characteristics:
Mean Annual Precipitation (through 1990) |
Upper Rappahannock
Basin (at Remington, VA) 40.85 inches (103.8cm) |
Lower
Rappahannock Basin (at Warsaw, VA) 42.60 inches (108.2cm) |
| Mean Annual Temperature (through 1990) | 56.0 o F (13.3 o C) | 57.4 o F (14.1 o C) |
| Mean Annual Sediment Load (through 1979, Meade 1982) | 99,208 tons/yr (90,000 x 10 3 kg/yr) | N/A |
| Mean Annual Discharge (Q) (1995) | 1.7 x 10 10 ft 3 /yr (971 x 10 6 m 3 /yr) | N/A |
More specific Rappahannock River Information can be found on our Research Project Page.