Norway 
In numbers.
850m
Height
6m
Width
May–Jul
Sep
Best months
320m
Elevation
The water at Balayfossen, month by month
It roars from May to June.
The fullest months: from May to June, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from February to March.
- 34%Jan
- 19%Feb
- 21%Mar
- 53%Apr
- 100%May
- 89%Jun
- 62%Jul
- 47%Aug
- 50%Sep
- 50%Oct
- 50%Nov
- 48%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to July and September.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall
Balayfossen is a waterfall in Norway. The water falls 850 m over a front 6 m wide.
Getting there.
- Ulviknearest town · 5.1 km in a straight line
- Bergen Airport, Flesland (BGO)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 103 km in a straight lineCar hire at BGO airport (Bergen)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to July and Septemberbest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
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.
How big is it?
How big it really is.
Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
Seen from the sky.
8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.
Around the falls the river drops 930 m in 1.7 km.
What is around.
- 1viewpointsJobykset
- —waymarked walking routes
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 2other named waterfalls within 4 kmSprænefossen, Røykjafossen
- —caves
- 1campsitesUlvik Camping
- 5hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmUlvik Bed and Breakfast, Brakanes Hotel, Strand Fjordhotel and 2 more
- —restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Ulvik5.1 km in a straight line
- Eidfjord11 km in a straight line
- Granvin16 km in a straight line
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | -1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 16 | 19 | 18 | 13 | 8 | 3 | 0 |
| Night °C | -6 | -6 | -5 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 11 | 7 | 3 | -2 | -4 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 185 | 131 | 131 | 99 | 105 | 130 | 154 | 152 | 169 | 160 | 171 | 193 |
| Wet days | 22 | 19 | 20 | 17 | 17 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 21 |
| Sun h/day | 0.3 | 1.6 | 4.2 | 7.3 | 7.8 | 6.6 | 6.4 | 5.3 | 3.6 | 2.0 | 0.6 | 0.4 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 93 | 125 | 144 | 112 | 36 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 27 | 54 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (320 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
Recent years
Wet years and dry years
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 177% | 223% | 126% | 134% | 101% | 68% | 132% | 84% | 125% | 84% | 150% | 53% |
| 2021 | 45% | 69% | 116% | 94% | 54% | 102% | 79% | 45% | 77% | 157% | 109% | 69% |
| 2022 | 152% | 213% | 47% | 57% | 139% | 112% | 103% | 102% | 52% | 130% | 79% | 61% |
| 2023 | 103% | 147% | 96% | 64% | 98% | 58% | 140% | 140% | 115% | 105% | 46% | 101% |
| 2024 | 94% | 170% | 80% | 106% | 74% | 99% | 104% | 148% | 71% | 138% | 82% | 149% |
| 2025 | 69% | 54% | 162% | 77% | 87% | 126% | 91% | 128% | 86% | 94% | 92% | 82% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Balayfossen
Norway
- 850 mHeight
- —Average flow
- May–Jul, SepBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q513676) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Relief, river profile, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Paths, viewpoints, parking | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
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