Zambia 
In numbers.
20m
Height
Dec–Mar
Best months
1,327m
Elevation
The water at Chishimba Falls, month by month
It roars from December to March.
The fullest months: from December to March. The thinnest: from May to October.
- 100%Jan
- 88%Feb
- 76%Mar
- 38%Apr
- 12%May
- 2%Jun
- 0%Jul
- 0%Aug
- 0%Sep
- 2%Oct
- 28%Nov
- 79%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from December to March.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall in Northern Province, Zambia
Chishimba Falls is a waterfall in Zambia. The water falls 20 m.
Getting there.
- Songwe Airport (MBI)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 324 km in a straight lineCar hire at NLA airport (Ndola)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From December to Marchbest 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.
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.
What is around.
- —viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- —campsites
- —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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 24 | 24 | 28 | 31 | 32 | 30 | 26 |
| Night °C | 17 | 17 | 17 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 18 | 18 | 17 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 260 | 197 | 191 | 64 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 26 | 146 | 270 |
| Wet days | 30 | 26 | 29 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 19 | 28 |
| Sun h/day | 5.0 | 5.9 | 6.5 | 8.2 | 9.7 | 10.2 | 10.2 | 9.9 | 9.1 | 8.2 | 6.7 | 5.6 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,327 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 | 125% | 111% | 148% | 63% | 118% | — | — | — | — | 92% | 189% | 124% |
| 2021 | 102% | 131% | 90% | 57% | 162% | — | — | — | — | 146% | 132% | 45% |
| 2022 | 182% | 218% | 76% | 230% | 75% | — | — | — | — | 17% | 145% | 101% |
| 2023 | 118% | 108% | 135% | 196% | 17% | — | — | — | — | 192% | 136% | 136% |
| 2024 | 151% | 167% | 84% | 277% | 158% | — | — | — | — | 88% | 57% | 47% |
| 2025 | 92% | 105% | 92% | 92% | 551% | — | — | — | — | 40% | 90% | 92% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Chishimba Falls
Zambia
- 20 mHeight
- —Average flow
- Dec–MarBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q1074827) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| 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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