
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.
- 57%Jan
- 34%Feb
- 29%Mar
- 49%Apr
- 55%May
- 41%Jun
- 27%Jul
- 25%Aug
- 35%Sep
- 70%Oct
- 100%Nov
- 93%Dec
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.
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.
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 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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 22 | 23 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 |
| Night °C | 13 | 14 | 15 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 15 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 108 | 86 | 104 | 175 | 164 | 101 | 82 | 92 | 129 | 234 | 274 | 212 |
| Wet days | 11 | 9 | 12 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 18 | 23 | 23 | 18 |
| Sun h/day | 6.4 | 7.7 | 8.3 | 7.5 | 6.7 | 6.5 | 6.3 | 6.3 | 6.5 | 6.3 | 5.4 | 5.1 |
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.
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 | 57% | 31% | 32% | 69% | 165% | 115% | 151% | 133% | 147% | 42% | 106% | 113% |
| 2021 | 178% | 67% | 152% | 87% | 184% | 166% | 201% | 182% | 134% | 145% | 148% | 71% |
| 2022 | 99% | 195% | 80% | 228% | 123% | 78% | 158% | 235% | 62% | 123% | 102% | 116% |
| 2023 | 87% | 145% | 120% | 99% | 115% | 118% | 102% | 87% | 264% | 224% | 161% | 202% |
| 2024 | 247% | 32% | 40% | 60% | 123% | 94% | 95% | 147% | 51% | 58% | 121% | 68% |
| 2025 | 224% | 95% | 241% | 178% | 121% | 92% | 79% | 82% | 122% | 151% | 250% | 82% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37540) · 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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Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.






