
In numbers.
Nov–Feb
Best months
702m
Elevation
The water at Cristal Falls, month by month
It roars from December to January.
The fullest months: from December to January. The thinnest: from May to October.
- 91%Jan
- 64%Feb
- 57%Mar
- 34%Apr
- 15%May
- 4%Jun
- 1%Jul
- 1%Aug
- 4%Sep
- 19%Oct
- 61%Nov
- 100%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from November to February.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Getting there.
- Santo Antônio do Rio Abaixonearest town · 2.8 km in a straight line
- Usiminas Airport (IPN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 84 km in a straight lineCar hire at CNF airport (Belo Horizonte)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From November to Februarybest 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.
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 141 m in 2.1 km. Here the river runs about 64 m below the lower rim of its valley.
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
- 2hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmPousada Catizani, Hotel Japão
- —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).
Towns nearby
- Santo Antônio do Rio Abaixo2.8 km in a straight line
- São Sebastião do Rio Preto12 km in a straight line
- Morro do Pilar14 km in a straight line
- Carmésia17 km in a straight line
- Passabém20 km in a straight line
- Ferros23 km in a straight line
- Itambé do Mato Dentro25 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 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 27 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 28 | 31 | 31 | 29 | 28 |
| Night °C | 19 | 18 | 18 | 17 | 15 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 177 | 120 | 139 | 63 | 28 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 35 | 88 | 187 | 240 |
| Wet days | 18 | 13 | 17 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 20 | 23 |
| Sun h/day | 6.9 | 7.2 | 6.5 | 6.8 | 6.7 | 7.0 | 7.4 | 8.0 | 7.7 | 6.9 | 5.4 | 6.0 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (702 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 | 204% | 145% | 169% | 90% | 188% | 81% | 91% | 83% | 11% | 254% | 33% | 58% |
| 2021 | 43% | 167% | 32% | 58% | 9% | 58% | 12% | 65% | 29% | 187% | 119% | 98% |
| 2022 | 147% | 190% | 4% | 36% | 52% | 45% | 28% | 11% | 100% | 101% | 127% | 121% |
| 2023 | 155% | 32% | 5% | 50% | 13% | 26% | 263% | 339% | 46% | 87% | 41% | 36% |
| 2024 | 114% | 92% | 55% | 12% | 15% | 19% | 21% | 24% | 2% | 114% | 44% | 76% |
| 2025 | 72% | 10% | 32% | 131% | 31% | 829% | 44% | 32% | 30% | 21% | 47% | 58% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q38117) · 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
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.



