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Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Waterfall

Bambarakanda Falls

One of the waterfalls of Sri Lanka.

When to go

Bambarakanda Waterfall
Kiriwattuduwa · CC BY-SA 3.0

In numbers.

Oct–Jan

Best months

1,238m

Elevation

The water at Bambarakanda Falls, month by month

It roars from November to December.

The fullest months: from November to December. The thinnest: August.

  1. 57%Jan
  2. 34%Feb
  3. 29%Mar
  4. 49%Apr
  5. 55%May
  6. 41%Jun
  7. 27%Jul
  8. 25%Aug
  9. 35%Sep
  10. 70%Oct
  11. 100%Nov
  12. 93%Dec
high water best months to go

Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from October to January.

Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.

Tallest waterfall in Sri Lanka

Bambarakanda Falls is a waterfall in Sri Lanka.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there.

  • Haputalenearest town · 13 km in a straight line
  • Parking 250 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
  • Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (HRI)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 63 km in a straight lineCar hire at CMB airport (Colombo)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • From October to Januarybest 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.

Seen from the sky.

8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.

Bambarakanda Falls seen from above (Sentinel-2) N 2 km

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The river through the falls
1,000 m1,250 m1,500 m1,750 mBambarakanda Falls-1.5 km-1 km-0.5 km0+0.5 km← upstreamdownstream →

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 728 m in 2.3 km.

What is around.

  • —viewpoints
  • 1waymarked walking routesPekoe Trail - Stage 11 - Horton Plains to Udaweriya
  • 1car parks
  • —swimming spots
  • —picnic sites
  • 2toilets
  • —information boards and visitor centres
  • —bus stops within 1 km
  • 7other named waterfalls within 4 kmLanka Falls, Surathali Ella, Yaalathenna Waterfall and 4 more
  • —caves
  • 5campsitesHorton Plains Campsite 1, Horton Plains Campsite 2, Horton Plains Campsite 3 and 2 more
  • 29hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmWorld's End Lodge, Ginihiriya Wildlife Bungalow, Nagrak Holiday Bungalow and 26 more
  • 1restaurants 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

  • Haputale13 km in a straight line
  • Nuwara Eliya23 km in a straight line

Weather

The weather, month by month.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C222325242322222222222222
Night °C131415171717161616161515
Rain & snow (mm)108861041751641018292129234274212
Wet days11912202018161518232318
Sun h/day6.47.78.37.56.76.56.36.36.56.35.45.1

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,238 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

A close up of Bambarakanda Waterfall in Sri Lanka
MHN De Silva · CC BY-SA 4.0
Bamabara Kanda waterfall
HutchND · CC BY-SA 4.0
Bambarakanda fall
Ashan randika jayaweera · CC BY-SA 4.0

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.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
202057%31%32%69%165%115%151%133%147%42%106%113%
2021178%67%152%87%184%166%201%182%134%145%148%71%
202299%195%80%228%123%78%158%235%62%123%102%116%
202387%145%120%99%115%118%102%87%264%224%161%202%
2024247%32%40%60%123%94%95%147%51%58%121%68%
2025224%95%241%178%121%92%79%82%122%151%250%82%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Bambarakanda Falls

Sri Lanka

  • —Height
  • —Average flow
  • Oct–JanBest months

Baker's Falls

Sri Lanka

  • —Height
  • 0.90 m³/sAverage flow
  • Oct–JanBest months

See the guide

Bomburu Ella

Sri Lanka

  • 30 mHeight
  • 1.3 m³/sAverage flow
  • Oct–JanBest months

See the guide

Galboda Ella

Sri Lanka

  • —Height
  • 0.96 m³/sAverage flow
  • Oct–JanBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q37540) · CC0
ClimateNASA POWER, 1991–2020
Relief, river profile, 3D modelCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Paths, viewpoints, parking© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX 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

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.