Canada 
In numbers.
9m
Height
27m³/s
Average flow
estimate
May–Jul
Best months
2.4MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Bow Falls, month by month
It roars from May to June.
The fullest months: from May to June, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from September to October and from December to March. Below −4 °C on average (from November to March): the falls can partly freeze.
- 2.6 m³/sJan
- 2.6 m³/sFeb
- 16 m³/sMar
- 49 m³/sApr
- 102 m³/sMay
- 100 m³/sJun
- 59 m³/sJul
- 31 m³/sAug
- 22 m³/sSep
- 19 m³/sOct
- 23 m³/sNov
- 8.8 m³/sDec
From about 2.6 m³/s in the lowest month to 102 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to July.
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 Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
Bow Falls is a waterfall in Canada. The water falls 9 m over a front 30 m wide. It lies within Banff National Park.
Getting there.
- Banffnearest town · 1.2 km in a straight line
- Parking 310 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Calgary International Airport (YYC)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 108 km in a straight lineCar hire at YYC airport (Calgary)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to Julybest 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.
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.
2.4 MW
About 27 m³/s falling 9 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 610 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.
- 12viewpointsSurprise Corner, Bow falls viewpoint, King's Lookout and 9 more
- 1waymarked walking routesTunnel Mountain Summit Trail
- 94car parks
- —swimming spots
- 47picnic sites
- 12toilets
- 6information boards and visitor centres
- 18bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 7campsitesTunnel Mountain Campground, Sp6 - Mount Rundle, Tunnel Mountain Trailer Court and 4 more
- 92hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHI Banff Alpine Centre, Fox Hotel and Suites, Hidden Ridge Resort and 89 more
- 93restaurants 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
- Banff1.2 km in a straight line
- Canmore17 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 | -5 | -4 | 0 | 4 | 12 | 17 | 21 | 20 | 15 | 7 | -1 | -6 |
| Night °C | -13 | -14 | -10 | -5 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 9 | 4 | -2 | -10 | -14 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 45 | 42 | 61 | 62 | 83 | 121 | 70 | 63 | 69 | 61 | 60 | 48 |
| Wet days | 13 | 11 | 16 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 15 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 13 |
| Sun h/day | 4.0 | 6.1 | 7.2 | 7.2 | 7.7 | 8.3 | 10.2 | 8.8 | 6.7 | 5.2 | 3.6 | 3.3 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 48 | 57 | 63 | 50 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 15 | 21 | 36 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,372 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 | 109% | 108% | 87% | 59% | 101% | 100% | 86% | 55% | 39% | 115% | 90% | 130% |
| 2021 | 68% | 93% | 60% | 44% | 142% | 81% | 44% | 144% | 52% | 67% | 178% | 140% |
| 2022 | 98% | 89% | 78% | 159% | 183% | 128% | 62% | 129% | 52% | 52% | 84% | 106% |
| 2023 | 44% | 121% | 56% | 105% | 96% | 96% | 106% | 98% | 68% | 73% | 65% | 125% |
| 2024 | 103% | 164% | 94% | 127% | 114% | 98% | 47% | 186% | 77% | 113% | 117% | 100% |
| 2025 | 47% | 74% | 161% | 86% | 75% | 97% | 253% | 90% | 45% | 67% | 123% | 268% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Bow Falls
Canada
- 9 mHeight
- 27 m³/sAverage flow
- May–JulBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37289) · 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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