South Africa 
In numbers.
0.28m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Nov–Feb
Best months
439m
Elevation
The water at Bawa Falls, month by month
It roars from November to March.
The fullest months: from November to March. The thinnest: from June to August.
- 0.5 m³/sJan
- 0.4 m³/sFeb
- 0.4 m³/sMar
- 0.3 m³/sApr
- 0.2 m³/sMay
- 0.1 m³/sJun
- 0.1 m³/sJul
- 0.1 m³/sAug
- 0.2 m³/sSep
- 0.3 m³/sOct
- 0.4 m³/sNov
- 0.4 m³/sDec
From about 0.13 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.45 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from November to February.
Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
Bawa Falls is a waterfall in South Africa.
Getting there.
- Butterworthnearest town · 7.2 km in a straight line
- King Phalo Airport (ELS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 77 km in a straight lineCar hire at ELS airport (East London)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From November to Februarybest 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 174 m in 3.0 km. Here the river runs about 82 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- —viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- —campsites
- —hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
- —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
- Butterworth7.2 km in a straight line
- Teko Springs16 km in a straight line
- Centane22 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 | 26 | 26 | 25 | 23 | 21 | 19 | 19 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| Night °C | 16 | 16 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 15 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 171 | 130 | 124 | 94 | 32 | 30 | 39 | 51 | 70 | 118 | 148 | 143 |
| Wet days | 21 | 19 | 18 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 15 | 17 | 20 |
| Sun h/day | 7.1 | 7.2 | 7.1 | 6.8 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.3 | 7.4 | 7.5 | 7.0 | 7.1 | 6.9 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide. 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 | 161% | 147% | 82% | 148% | 29% | 4% | 8% | 19% | 31% | 108% | 87% | 119% |
| 2021 | 124% | 66% | 56% | 158% | 55% | 157% | 8% | 106% | 237% | 84% | 125% | 149% |
| 2022 | 82% | 119% | 158% | 190% | 425% | 26% | 96% | 188% | 220% | 66% | 152% | 85% |
| 2023 | 130% | 171% | 103% | 24% | 813% | 240% | 98% | 36% | 112% | 247% | 53% | 129% |
| 2024 | 96% | 15% | 80% | 136% | 134% | 698% | 8% | 21% | 147% | 153% | 120% | 76% |
| 2025 | 96% | 93% | 163% | 184% | 66% | 449% | 66% | 37% | 131% | 38% | 66% | 94% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Bawa Falls
South Africa
- —Height
- 0.28 m³/sAverage flow
- Nov–FebBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q4873746) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| River flow and catchment | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| 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.
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