Canada 
In numbers.
35m
Height
145m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr–Jun
Oct
Best months
50MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Chaudière Falls, month by month
It roars from April to July and in October.
The fullest months: from April to July and October. Below −4 °C on average (from December to March): the falls can partly freeze.
- 84 m³/sJan
- 43 m³/sFeb
- 146 m³/sMar
- 409 m³/sApr
- 516 m³/sMay
- 428 m³/sJun
- 259 m³/sJul
- 184 m³/sAug
- 157 m³/sSep
- 267 m³/sOct
- 162 m³/sNov
- 202 m³/sDec
From about 43 m³/s in the lowest month to 516 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to June and 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 on the Chaudière River in Lévis, Quebec
Chaudière Falls is a waterfall in Canada. The water falls 35 m.
Getting there.
- Breakeyvillenearest town · 5.9 km in a straight line
- Parking 300 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Quebec Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 12 km in a straight lineCar hire at YQB airport (Quebec)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April to June and Octoberbest 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.
50 MW
About 145 m³/s falling 35 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 17 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 12,400 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 49 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 46 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 10viewpointsBelvédère 15m face aux chutes, Baie St-Nicolas, Belvédère 23m face aux chutes and 7 more
- —waymarked walking routes
- 86car parks
- —swimming spots
- 5picnic sites
- 6toilets
- 2information boards and visitor centres
- 41bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 3campsitesCamping Bernières, KOA Quebec City, Boisé de la Chaudière - Camping Caravaning
- 17hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHôtel Travelodge, Comfort Inn & Suites, Holiday Inn Express and 14 more
- 27restaurants 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
- Breakeyville5.9 km in a straight line
- Saint Romuald5.9 km in a straight line
- Cap-Rouge6.5 km in a straight line
- Sainte-Foy–Sillery–Cap-Rouge7.0 km in a straight line
- Sainte-Foy7.4 km in a straight line
- L'Ancienne-Lorette10 km in a straight line
- Les Rivières12 km in a straight line
- Québec12 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 | -5 | 0 | 9 | 18 | 22 | 25 | 24 | 20 | 12 | 4 | -3 |
| Night °C | -17 | -15 | -9 | -1 | 6 | 12 | 16 | 14 | 10 | 4 | -3 | -11 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 64 | 62 | 71 | 90 | 92 | 111 | 114 | 105 | 93 | 111 | 80 | 92 |
| Wet days | 14 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 15 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 14 |
| Sun h/day | 3.3 | 4.7 | 5.9 | 6.3 | 6.8 | 7.5 | 7.7 | 7.0 | 6.1 | 3.6 | 2.3 | 1.9 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 24 | 31 | 24 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 14 | 20 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (40 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 | 143% | 91% | 147% | 79% | 60% | 56% | 106% | 114% | 77% | 122% | 81% | 87% |
| 2021 | 46% | 94% | 93% | 57% | 72% | 98% | 74% | 49% | 100% | 64% | 89% | 91% |
| 2022 | 55% | 156% | 130% | 109% | 116% | 93% | 109% | 136% | 78% | 48% | 116% | 102% |
| 2023 | 126% | 106% | 70% | 88% | 51% | 111% | 162% | 141% | 81% | 80% | 81% | 84% |
| 2024 | 79% | 37% | 100% | 54% | 87% | 132% | 102% | 129% | 54% | 49% | 91% | 95% |
| 2025 | 80% | 100% | 96% | 111% | 111% | 105% | 109% | 51% | 50% | 79% | 113% | 70% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Chaudière Falls
Canada
- 35 mHeight
- 145 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr–Jun, OctBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37522) · 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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