Ethiopia 
In numbers.
42m
Height
212m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jul–Oct
Best months
87MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Blue Nile Falls, month by month
It roars from August to September.
The fullest months: from August to September. The thinnest: from November to May.
- 52 m³/sJan
- 49 m³/sFeb
- 53 m³/sMar
- 66 m³/sApr
- 113 m³/sMay
- 191 m³/sJun
- 384 m³/sJul
- 508 m³/sAug
- 472 m³/sSep
- 294 m³/sOct
- 138 m³/sNov
- 68 m³/sDec
From about 49 m³/s in the lowest month to 508 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from July to October.
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 Ethiopia
Blue Nile Falls is a waterfall in Ethiopia. The water falls 42 m.
Getting there.
- T’īs Isatnearest town · 0.9 km in a straight line
- Parking 700 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Bahir Dar Airport (BJR)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 32 km in a straight line
- From July to Octoberbest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
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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.
87 MW
About 212 m³/s falling 42 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 29 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 21,800 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.
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.
What is around.
- 8viewpointsጥስ እሳት ፏፏቴ and 7 more
- —waymarked walking routes
- 2car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- 1information boards and visitor centres
- 1bus stops within 1 km
- 2other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 2campsitesBlue Nile Camping
- —hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
- 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
- T’īs Isat0.9 km in a straight line
- Bahir Dar24 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 | 29 | 31 | 32 | 32 | 30 | 27 | 24 | 23 | 25 | 26 | 26 | 27 |
| Night °C | 14 | 16 | 18 | 19 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 15 | 14 | 14 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 4 | 10 | 29 | 59 | 134 | 197 | 394 | 370 | 200 | 72 | 28 | 10 |
| Wet days | 1 | 3 | 8 | 13 | 20 | 28 | 31 | 31 | 26 | 13 | 6 | 3 |
| Sun h/day | 10.4 | 10.4 | 10.1 | 10.0 | 9.1 | 8.0 | 6.1 | 6.1 | 8.0 | 9.4 | 9.9 | 10.4 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,635 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 | — | 142% | 35% | 113% | 138% | 112% | 119% | 140% | 196% | 82% | 24% | 16% |
| 2021 | — | 175% | 30% | 162% | 200% | 65% | 195% | 135% | 145% | 85% | 160% | 368% |
| 2022 | — | 88% | 86% | 203% | 60% | 145% | 163% | 85% | 90% | 91% | 18% | 158% |
| 2023 | — | 21% | 61% | 259% | 83% | 156% | 105% | 115% | 68% | 236% | 447% | 36% |
| 2024 | — | 160% | 89% | 39% | 41% | 199% | 159% | 115% | 109% | 117% | 140% | 6% |
| 2025 | — | 76% | 151% | 79% | 165% | 88% | 128% | 171% | 145% | 121% | 128% | 130% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q1266055) · 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.
The family
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