EARTH · RIVERS & FLOODS · LAOS
Mekong River Discharge
The latest reading on the Mekong at Pakse, Laos — from the Copernicus GloFAS model, reporting river discharge (cubic metres per second). Southeast Asia’s great river, flowing through six countries; its monsoon flood pulse feeds one of the world’s richest fisheries.The figure below is live, shown with the time it was taken, and framed as a measurement of flow — never a flood verdict.
What this reading means
River dischargeis the volume of water passing this point each second, in cubic metres per second (m³/s) — the standard way hydrologists size a river. GloFAS estimates it by routing rainfall and snowmelt down the whole basin. On the probe, the Mekong here read about 15,739 m³/s (high flow); the live figure above will differ with the season. It is a measure of how big the river is running — not a statement that it is flooding, which depends on the river’s own banks downstream.
About this reading
The Mekong’s discharge is estimated by the Copernicus Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS), served keyless via the Open-Meteo Flood API. The point used here is the river’s verified main-stem cell near Pakse, Laos— chosen so the reading tracks the trunk of the river rather than a side channel — and the model updates daily.
Nearby rivers
The closest rivers to the Mekong— compare how much water each is moving.