Jamaica Coastal waterfall

Dunn's River Falls

A 55 m drop.

When to go

Breakyunit at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

In numbers.

55m

Height

0.17m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Jun
Sep–Nov

Best months

91kW

Water power

estimate

The water at Dunn's River Falls, month by month

It roars from October to November.

The fullest months: from October to November. The thinnest: from January to April.

0.1 m³/sJan
0.1 m³/sFeb
0.1 m³/sMar
0.1 m³/sApr
0.2 m³/sMay
0.2 m³/sJun
0.2 m³/sJul
0.2 m³/sAug
0.3 m³/sSep
0.4 m³/sOct
0.3 m³/sNov
0.2 m³/sDec

high water best months to go

From about 0.06 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.41 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: June and from September to 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.

Waterfall in Jamaica

Dunn's River Falls is a coastal waterfall in Jamaica. The water falls 55 m.

Getting there.

Ocho Riosnearest town · 3.8 km in a straight line
Parking 410 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
Ian Fleming International Airport (OCJ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 18 km in a straight lineCar hire at KIN airport (Kingston)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
June and from September to Novemberbest months to go (estimate)

Plan your visit

Stay, explore and get there

Car hire at KIN airport (Kingston)Discover CarsSee

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.

91 kW

About 0.17 m³/s falling 55 m: the power of the water as it drops.

enough to power about 23 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.

Dunn's River Falls seen from above (Sentinel-2)

N 2 km

ParkingOther falls

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The Dunns River through the falls

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.

The valley below the falls

Around the falls the river drops 143 m in 2.0 km.

What is around.

—viewpoints
—waymarked walking routes
2car parks
—swimming spots
—picnic sites
—toilets
—information boards and visitor centres
—bus stops within 1 km
6other named waterfalls within 4 kmLittle Dunn’s River Falls, Roaring River Falls, Laughing Water Falls and 3 more
—caves
—campsites
37hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmShelliann, The Bamboo Hostel, Executive Mammee Bay Hotel and 34 more
32restaurants 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

Ocho Rios3.8 km in a straight line
Saint Ann’s Bay7.0 km in a straight line
Bamboo14 km in a straight line
Moneague16 km in a straight line
Gayle17 km in a straight line
Oracabessa20 km in a straight line
Runaway Bay21 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	27	27	28	28	29	29	29	30	30	29	28	28
Night °C	24	24	24	25	26	27	27	27	27	27	26	25
Rain & snow (mm)	46	30	39	51	136	125	94	122	151	192	118	58
Wet days	14	11	13	14	23	24	26	27	28	28	20	16
Sun h/day	6.7	7.4	7.9	8.3	7.3	7.6	8.0	7.4	7.3	6.2	6.1	6.4

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (53 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

A Dunns River craftsmen carving wood Photo Don Ramey Logan — Don Ramey Logan · CC BY-SA 3.0

Climbing Dunn's River Falls — Thank You (23 Millions+) views · CC BY 2.0

Dunn's River Falls & Park — Artur Staszewski · CC BY-SA 2.0

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	72%	93%	52%	12%	48%	50%	78%	95%	83%	149%	256%	57%
2021	103%	89%	58%	92%	76%	112%	240%	276%	46%	76%	78%	88%
2022	66%	141%	143%	244%	110%	141%	67%	91%	136%	50%	35%	29%
2023	55%	31%	108%	108%	190%	218%	87%	118%	115%	60%	166%	166%
2024	81%	115%	66%	68%	67%	215%	147%	81%	118%	82%	228%	153%
2025	95%	124%	98%	144%	33%	71%	68%	57%	104%	172%	52%	59%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Dunn's River Falls

Jamaica

55 mHeight
0.17 m³/sAverage flow
Jun, Sep–NovBest months

Mayfield Falls

Jamaica

—Height
0.71 m³/sAverage flow
Jun, Sep–NovBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, river	Wikidata (Q1266226) · 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.