Australia 
In numbers.
0.58m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jan–Mar
Best months
638m
Elevation
The water at Fortescue Falls, month by month
It roars from January to February.
The fullest months: from January to February. The thinnest: from May to December.
- 1.7 m³/sJan
- 1.8 m³/sFeb
- 1.2 m³/sMar
- 0.5 m³/sApr
- 0.2 m³/sMay
- 0.2 m³/sJun
- 0.2 m³/sJul
- 0.1 m³/sAug
- 0.0 m³/sSep
- 0.0 m³/sOct
- 0.1 m³/sNov
- 0.2 m³/sDec
From about 0.03 m³/s in the lowest month to 1.8 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from January to March.
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 Western Australia
Fortescue Falls is a waterfall in Australia.
Getting there.
- Parking 280 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Paraburdoo Airport (PBO)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 113 km in a straight lineCar hire at PBO airport (Paraburdoo)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From January 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.
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 65 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 40 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 5viewpointsThree Ways Lookout, Fortescue Falls Lookout, Circular Pool Lookout and 2 more
- —waymarked walking routes
- 2car parks
- —swimming spots
- 5picnic sites
- 17toilets
- 1information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 2campsitesCampground hosts, Dales Camp Ground
- —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 | 38 | 36 | 35 | 32 | 27 | 23 | 23 | 26 | 31 | 36 | 38 | 40 |
| Night °C | 24 | 23 | 21 | 18 | 12 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 13 | 18 | 21 | 24 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 135 | 89 | 59 | 25 | 15 | 22 | 13 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 14 | 36 |
| Wet days | 13 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| Sun h/day | 9.9 | 9.8 | 9.4 | 9.3 | 9.3 | 8.9 | 9.5 | 11.1 | 11.8 | 11.6 | 11.8 | 11.3 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (638 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 | 122% | 105% | 10% | 41% | 55% | 4% | 0% | — | — | 118% | 77% | 96% |
| 2021 | 41% | 122% | 48% | 134% | 81% | 27% | 0% | — | — | 0% | 73% | 2% |
| 2022 | 10% | 88% | 83% | 33% | 234% | 1% | 0% | — | — | 17% | 8% | 21% |
| 2023 | 43% | 32% | 100% | 45% | 0% | 23% | 0% | — | — | 0% | 8% | 10% |
| 2024 | 54% | 1% | 80% | 25% | 4% | 186% | 2% | — | — | 75% | 333% | 245% |
| 2025 | 23% | 65% | 22% | 11% | 0% | 42% | 7% | — | — | 8% | 19% | 68% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q21890852) · 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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