Moskva River - Hydrology

Hydrology

The length of the river is 503 km. The area of its drainage basin is 17,600 km². Vertical level drop is 155 metres (long-term average). Maximum depth above Moscow city limits - 3 metres, and up to 6 metres below it . Normally, it freezes in November–December and begins to thaw around late March. In Moscow, the river freezes occasionally; during an unusually warm winter in 2006-2007, ice began melting on January 25. The absolute water level in downtown Moscow is 120.0 metres above sea level (long-term average of summer lows after World War II), a historical maximum was set by the 1908 flood - 127.25 metres above sea level.