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United States United States Waterfall UNESCO World Heritage

Bechler Falls

A 5 m drop.

When to go

BechlerFallsYNP
R. G. Johnsson · Public domain

In numbers.

5m

Height

OpenStreetMap

5.0m³/s

Average flow

estimate

May–Jun

Best months

226kW

Water power

estimate

The water at Bechler Falls, month by month

It roars from April to May.

The fullest months: from April to May, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from January to February and from July to October. Below −4 °C on average (from December to February): the falls can partly freeze.

  1. 2.1 m³/sJan
  2. 3.0 m³/sFeb
  3. 11 m³/sMar
  4. 15 m³/sApr
  5. 12 m³/sMay
  6. 7.5 m³/sJun
  7. 3.1 m³/sJul
  8. 1.6 m³/sAug
  9. 2.0 m³/sSep
  10. 2.5 m³/sOct
  11. 4.1 m³/sNov
  12. 4.9 m³/sDec
high water best months to go may freeze

From about 1.6 m³/s in the lowest month to 15 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to June.

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 on the Bechler River in Yellowstone National Park

Bechler Falls is a waterfall in United States. The water falls 5 m. It lies within Yellowstone National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there.

Plan your visit

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How big is it?

How big it really is.

4.6 mBechler Falls1.8 ma person9.0 ma house

Height of the drop as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.

226 kW

About 5.0 m³/s falling 5 m: the power of the water as it drops.

  • enough to power about 57 homes, if it were all turned into electricity

Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.

Seen from the sky.

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

Bechler 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 Bechler River through the falls
1,920 m1,930 m1,940 mBechler Falls-1.5 km-1 km-0.5 km0+0.5 km+1 km+1.5 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.

The valley below the falls
−690 m+690 m

Around the falls the river drops 22 m in 3.3 km. Here the river runs about 18 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

  • —viewpoints
  • —waymarked walking routes
  • —car parks
  • —swimming spots
  • 1picnic sites
  • —toilets
  • —information boards and visitor centres
  • —bus stops within 1 km
  • 1other named waterfalls within 4 kmCave Falls
  • —caves
  • 6campsitesLittle Robinson Creek, Lower Boundary Creek, Rocky Ford and 3 more
  • —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).

Weather

The weather, month by month.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C-4-3281420272620102-4
Night °C-15-14-8-42612105-2-8-14
Rain & snow (mm)786569716958283446607085
Wet days161415151512888101317
Sun h/day3.65.36.17.68.610.512.510.98.86.13.92.9
Snow on the ground (cm)5564431872002101730

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,940 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.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2020110%81%105%79%92%189%90%40%48%52%92%40%
202162%70%45%36%102%11%94%206%49%122%49%94%
202235%11%31%72%102%105%32%138%86%65%104%83%
202368%73%127%54%93%145%64%237%122%114%41%51%
202470%126%128%57%75%49%60%121%97%33%56%76%
202540%127%78%49%83%35%62%141%56%134%24%143%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Bechler Falls

United States

  • 5 mHeight
  • 5.0 m³/sAverage flow
  • May–JunBest months

Union Falls

United States

  • —Height
  • 0.46 m³/sAverage flow
  • May–JunBest months

See the guide

Terraced Falls

United States

  • 40 mHeight
  • 1.5 m³/sAverage flow
  • May–JunBest months

See the guide

Upper Mesa Falls

United States

  • 35 mHeight
  • 20 m³/sAverage flow
  • Apr–JunBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q37359) · CC0
Height of the drop© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
River flow and catchmentHydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0
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.