Switzerland 
In numbers.
20m
Height
OpenStreetMap
May–Aug
Best months
448m
Elevation
The water at Giessbach Falls, month by month
It roars from April to August.
The fullest months: from April to August.
- 50%Jan
- 46%Feb
- 68%Mar
- 80%Apr
- 99%May
- 100%Jun
- 92%Jul
- 95%Aug
- 74%Sep
- 60%Oct
- 51%Nov
- 49%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to August.
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 the Giessen quarter in Wädenswil in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland
Giessbach Falls is a waterfall in Switzerland. The water falls 20 m.
Getting there.
- Wädenswil / Boller-Giessennearest town · 0.1 km in a straight line
- Parking 820 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Zürich Airport (ZRH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 28 km in a straight lineCar hire at ZRH airport (Zurich)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to Augustbest 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 as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
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.
What is around.
- 5viewpointsGottfried-Keller-Plätzli, Pavillon Schloss and 3 more
- 6waymarked walking routesRichterswil Bahnhof - Schwalbenboden, Richterswil Bahnhof - Wädenswil Bahnhof, Wädenswil - Richterswil (Seeweg) and 3 more
- 202car parks
- 4swimming spotsBretterbadi and 3 more
- 20picnic sites
- 12toilets
- 47information boards and visitor centres
- 28bus stops within 1 km
- 4other named waterfalls within 4 kmOberer Risitobelfall, Unterer Risitobelfall, Schlossbach-Wasserfall and 1 more
- —caves
- 1campsites
- 30hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmMetzg, Jugendherberge Richterswil, Engel and 27 more
- 76restaurants 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
- Wädenswil / Boller-Giessen0.1 km in a straight line
- Wädenswil / Eichweid0.9 km in a straight line
- Wädenswil / Leihof-Mühlebach1.0 km in a straight line
- Wädenswil1.3 km in a straight line
- Wädenswil / Dorf (Wädenswil)1.3 km in a straight line
- Richterswil / Burghalde1.4 km in a straight line
- Wädenswil / Untermosen-Fuhr1.8 km in a straight line
- Richterswil1.9 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 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 19 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 21 | 17 | 10 | 6 |
| Night °C | -3 | -3 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 17 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 3 | -2 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 101 | 80 | 102 | 107 | 163 | 176 | 173 | 190 | 124 | 110 | 103 | 106 |
| Wet days | 14 | 12 | 15 | 16 | 19 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 15 | 14 | 15 | 15 |
| Sun h/day | 2.5 | 3.8 | 5.3 | 6.5 | 6.7 | 8.0 | 8.1 | 7.3 | 6.0 | 4.2 | 2.4 | 2.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 32 | 36 | 26 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 14 | 24 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (448 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 | 51% | 177% | 83% | 46% | 69% | 127% | 69% | 142% | 88% | 167% | 31% | 122% |
| 2021 | 241% | 83% | 102% | 57% | 126% | 116% | 241% | 104% | 80% | 56% | 88% | 121% |
| 2022 | 59% | 156% | 18% | 90% | 73% | 94% | 75% | 75% | 143% | 91% | 80% | 84% |
| 2023 | 55% | 50% | 131% | 146% | 111% | 44% | 108% | 129% | 86% | 123% | 215% | 178% |
| 2024 | 105% | 98% | 183% | 134% | 155% | 127% | 118% | 57% | 167% | 122% | 76% | 107% |
| 2025 | 106% | 43% | 71% | 75% | 92% | 82% | 161% | 92% | 153% | 89% | 96% | 22% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Giessbach Falls
Switzerland
- 20 mHeight
- —Average flow
- May–AugBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q97101889) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| 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
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