France Waterfall

Gavarnie Falls

A 422 m drop.

When to go

Jean-Christophe BENOIST · CC BY 3.0

In numbers.

422m

Height

6.0m³/s

Average flow

May–Jul
Oct

Best months

25MW

Water power

estimate

The water at Gavarnie Falls, month by month

It roars from March to May.

The fullest months: from March to May. Below −4 °C on average (from December to February): the falls can partly freeze.

69%Jan
70%Feb
86%Mar
100%Apr
100%May
70%Jun
39%Jul
26%Aug
35%Sep
53%Oct
66%Nov
56%Dec

high water best months to go may freeze

Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to July and October.

Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.

Waterfall in France

Gavarnie Falls is a waterfall in France. The water falls 422 m over a front 15 m wide. It lies within Pyrénées National Park.

Getting there.

Brotonearest town · 14 km in a straight line
Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrénées Airport (LDE)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 54 km in a straight lineCar hire at LDE airport (Tarbes/Lourdes/Pyrénées)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
From May to July and Octoberbest months to go (estimate)

Plan your visit

Stay, explore and get there

Car hire at LDE airport (Tarbes/Lourdes/Pyrénées)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.

25 MW

About 6.0 m³/s falling 422 m: the power of the water as it drops.

as much as 8.3 large wind turbines
enough to power about 6,200 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.

Gavarnie Falls seen from above (Sentinel-2)

N 2 km

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

The 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 849 m in 1.2 km. Here the river runs about 218 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

2viewpoints
2waymarked walking routesCirque de Gavarnie, Mont Perdu par la brèche de Roland
—car parks
—swimming spots
—picnic sites
—toilets
2information boards and visitor centres
—bus stops within 1 km
—other named waterfalls within 4 km
7caves
3campsitesAire de bivouac du Refuge des Espuguettes, La Bergerie, Aire pour camping-cars Gavarnie
17hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHôtel Vignemale, Hotêl Le Compostelle, Gîte le Gypaëte and 14 more
2restaurants 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

Broto14 km in a straight line
Bielsa19 km in a straight line
Puértolas20 km in a straight line
Luz-Saint-Sauveur20 km in a straight line
Yésero22 km in a straight line
Cauterets24 km in a straight line
Fiscal24 km in a straight line
Hoz de Jaca25 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	-1	-1	3	6	11	16	19	18	14	9	2	-1
Night °C	-9	-9	-7	-4	0	4	6	6	2	-1	-6	-8
Rain & snow (mm)	60	48	60	72	71	50	37	37	47	59	68	50
Wet days	12	10	10	14	13	10	8	8	10	11	13	11
Sun h/day	4.5	5.5	6.4	6.8	7.8	9.5	10.3	9.4	8.0	6.1	4.8	4.5
Snow on the ground (cm)	14	14	10	6	2	0	0	0	0	2	8	13

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (2,200 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Cirque et cascade de Gavarnie — Jens Buurgaard Nielsen · CC BY-SA 3.0

2019 - Parc national des Pyrenees - Grande cascade de Gavarnie — Moahim · CC BY-SA 4.0

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	109%	35%	156%	142%	134%	166%	65%	73%	126%	187%	62%	245%
2021	119%	63%	18%	58%	51%	164%	75%	41%	154%	98%	104%	148%
2022	46%	34%	106%	91%	38%	96%	83%	118%	123%	112%	115%	122%
2023	117%	69%	41%	43%	73%	231%	77%	101%	119%	97%	115%	91%
2024	66%	169%	220%	64%	109%	126%	83%	160%	301%	190%	50%	56%
2025	103%	52%	196%	104%	90%	104%	56%	141%	107%	52%	112%	72%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Gavarnie Falls

France

422 mHeight
6.0 m³/sAverage flow
May–Jul, OctBest months

Aigualluts

Spain

—Height
0.59 m³/sAverage flow
May–Jul, OctBest months

See the guide

La Sallent

Spain

220 mHeight
0.11 m³/sAverage flow
Apr–Jun, OctBest months

See the guide

Salt de Llubriqueto

Spain

85 mHeight
—Average flow
May–Jul, OctBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, river	Wikidata (Q1496402) · 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.