Namibia / Angola 
In numbers.
20m
Height
217m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Feb–May
Best months
43MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Epupa Falls, month by month
It roars in March.
The fullest months: March. The thinnest: from June to December.
- 222 m³/sJan
- 332 m³/sFeb
- 521 m³/sMar
- 405 m³/sApr
- 258 m³/sMay
- 83 m³/sJun
- 66 m³/sJul
- 66 m³/sAug
- 66 m³/sSep
- 69 m³/sOct
- 97 m³/sNov
- 126 m³/sDec
From about 66 m³/s in the lowest month to 521 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from February to May.
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 Cunene River in Angola and Namibia
Epupa Falls is a waterfall in Namibia. The water falls 20 m.
Getting there.
- Parking 430 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Welwitschia Mirabilis International Airport (MSZ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 226 km in a straight lineCar hire at OND airport (Ondangwa)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From February to Maybest 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.
43 MW
About 217 m³/s falling 20 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 14 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 10,600 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 31 m in 2.2 km.
What is around.
- 4viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 kmQuedas do Monte Negro
- —caves
- 7campsitesOmarunga Lodge, Epupa Camp, Motjikutu Camp and 4 more
- 2hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmEpupa Falls Lodge & Campsite, Kapika Waterfall Lodge
- 1restaurants 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 | 35 | 35 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 32 | 32 | 35 | 38 | 39 | 38 | 37 |
| Night °C | 20 | 20 | 21 | 20 | 17 | 13 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 21 | 21 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 90 | 107 | 151 | 35 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 43 | 46 |
| Wet days | 11 | 13 | 18 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 8 |
| Sun h/day | 8.9 | 8.5 | 8.1 | 9.4 | 10.5 | 10.6 | 10.4 | 10.0 | 9.9 | 10.0 | 9.8 | 9.6 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (620 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 | 114% | 110% | 55% | 177% | — | — | — | — | — | 29% | 23% | 49% |
| 2021 | 60% | 39% | 84% | 41% | — | — | — | — | — | 0% | 18% | 13% |
| 2022 | 23% | 77% | 479% | 262% | — | — | — | — | — | 29% | 14% | 23% |
| 2023 | 101% | 11% | 25% | 53% | — | — | — | — | — | 0% | 62% | 85% |
| 2024 | 33% | 68% | 23% | 6% | — | — | — | — | — | 0% | 43% | 53% |
| 2025 | 47% | 228% | 87% | 76% | — | — | — | — | — | 21% | 10% | 19% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Epupa Falls
Namibia
- 20 mHeight
- 217 m³/sAverage flow
- Feb–MayBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q187918) · 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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