
In numbers.
60m
Height
3.5m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Mar–May
Nov
Best months
2.0MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Cascade de Cerveyrieu, month by month
It roars from November to May.
The fullest months: from November to May.
- 4.8 m³/sJan
- 4.1 m³/sFeb
- 4.9 m³/sMar
- 3.9 m³/sApr
- 3.9 m³/sMay
- 2.6 m³/sJun
- 1.4 m³/sJul
- 1.3 m³/sAug
- 1.3 m³/sSep
- 3.0 m³/sOct
- 4.1 m³/sNov
- 4.6 m³/sDec
From about 1.3 m³/s in the lowest month to 4.9 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from March to May and November.
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.
Cascade de Cerveyrieu is a waterfall in France. The water falls 60 m.
Getting there.
- Artemarenearest town · 1.3 km in a straight line
- Parking 140 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Chambéry Aix les Bains airport (CMF)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 31 km in a straight lineCar hire at LYS airport (Colombier-Saugnieu, Rhône)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From March to May and Novemberbest 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.
2.0 MW
About 3.5 m³/s falling 60 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 508 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.
Around the falls the river drops 150 m in 3.1 km.
What is around.
- 7viewpointsCascade de Cerveyrieu, Gorges de Thurignin, Gouffre du diable and 4 more
- 54waymarked walking routesBalcon du Valromey, Tour du Fierloz, Le pied du Grand Colombier and 51 more
- 24car parks
- —swimming spots
- 5picnic sites
- 4toilets
- 16information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 3other named waterfalls within 4 kmCascade de Clairefontaine, Gouffre à Balthazar, Cascade du Niaz
- 1caves
- 3campsitesAire de stationnement de Ceyzérieu, Le Vaugrais, Camping municipal de Champagne
- 25hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmGîte de Charancin, Le Grand Amiral, La Boiserie de Fitignieu and 22 more
- 7restaurants 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
- Artemare1.3 km in a straight line
- Virieu-le-Grand4.1 km in a straight line
- Culoz8.9 km in a straight line
- Hauteville-Lompnes12 km in a straight line
- Belley13 km in a straight line
- Tenay14 km in a straight line
- Chindrieux15 km in a straight line
- Châtillon16 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 | 6 | 7 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 24 | 26 | 26 | 22 | 17 | 11 | 6 |
| Night °C | -1 | -1 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 0 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 103 | 79 | 96 | 84 | 110 | 95 | 87 | 94 | 80 | 108 | 112 | 116 |
| Wet days | 13 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 13 | 14 |
| Sun h/day | 2.2 | 3.7 | 5.5 | 6.8 | 7.1 | 8.9 | 9.1 | 8.1 | 6.8 | 4.4 | 2.5 | 1.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 16 | 14 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 14 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (245 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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 56% | 135% | 85% | 54% | 93% | 131% | 27% | 93% | 99% | 194% | 26% | 124% |
| 2021 | 133% | 72% | 59% | 63% | 159% | 114% | 196% | 62% | 111% | 92% | 65% | 167% |
| 2022 | 43% | 107% | 27% | 105% | 33% | 126% | 20% | 66% | 188% | 73% | 123% | 129% |
| 2023 | 78% | 9% | 139% | 110% | 59% | 82% | 63% | 77% | 92% | 177% | 208% | 155% |
| 2024 | 114% | 109% | 114% | 125% | 149% | 125% | 99% | 61% | 241% | 155% | 56% | 101% |
| 2025 | 157% | 58% | 56% | 107% | 85% | 103% | 118% | 92% | 194% | 173% | 150% | 36% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q19371162) · 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
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.






