Spain 
In numbers.
120m
Height
OpenStreetMap
Mar–May
Nov
Best months
1,378m
Elevation
The water at Chorreras de Despeñalagua, month by month
It roars from March to May and in November.
The fullest months: from March to May and November. The thinnest: from July to September.
- 59%Jan
- 68%Feb
- 88%Mar
- 100%Apr
- 80%May
- 44%Jun
- 16%Jul
- 7%Aug
- 14%Sep
- 67%Oct
- 90%Nov
- 75%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from March to May and November.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Chorreras de Despeñalagua is a waterfall in Spain. The water falls 120 m. It lies within Sierra Norte de Guadalajara.
Getting there.
- Valverde de los Arroyosnearest town · 1.9 km in a straight line
- Parking 1,720 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 75 km in a straight lineCar hire at MAD airport (Madrid)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 as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). 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.
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 413 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 68 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpointsDespeñalagua
- 4waymarked walking routesOcejón, Pueblos de la Arquitectura Negra (Etapa 1), Pueblos de la Arquitectura Negra (Etapa 2) and 1 more
- 4car parks
- —swimming spots
- 1picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- —campsites
- 19hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmApartamentos Rurales La Plaza, Apartamentos Rurales Las Cabezadas, Hostal Rural Valverde and 16 more
- 3restaurants 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
- Valverde de los Arroyos1.9 km in a straight line
- Majaelrayo4.3 km in a straight line
- Campillo de Ranas6.7 km in a straight line
- Arroyo de las Fraguas11 km in a straight line
- Galve de Sorbe12 km in a straight line
- Cantalojas12 km in a straight line
- Semillas14 km in a straight line
- Tamajón14 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 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 24 | 28 | 28 | 22 | 16 | 9 | 5 |
| Night °C | -4 | -4 | -2 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 4 | -1 | -4 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 38 | 36 | 47 | 54 | 47 | 30 | 12 | 16 | 25 | 61 | 53 | 37 |
| Wet days | 8 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 8 |
| Sun h/day | 3.9 | 5.3 | 6.5 | 7.7 | 9.4 | 11.0 | 12.3 | 11.0 | 8.9 | 6.4 | 4.5 | 4.1 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 9 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,378 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 | 70% | 3% | 200% | 222% | 148% | 106% | 165% | 158% | 173% | 101% | 88% | 133% |
| 2021 | 169% | 147% | 14% | 148% | 72% | 226% | 85% | 46% | 269% | 117% | 85% | 74% |
| 2022 | 22% | 18% | 186% | 98% | 27% | 15% | 43% | 70% | 118% | 60% | 92% | 288% |
| 2023 | 101% | 27% | 48% | 24% | 91% | 363% | 37% | 21% | 393% | 197% | 73% | 113% |
| 2024 | 178% | 102% | 205% | 23% | 54% | 184% | 45% | 370% | 224% | 205% | 26% | 18% |
| 2025 | 119% | 67% | 349% | 137% | 125% | 112% | 225% | 40% | 20% | 56% | 109% | 84% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Chorreras de Despeñalagua
Spain
- 120 mHeight
- —Average flow
- Mar–May, NovBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q5767255) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| 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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