Switzerland 
In numbers.
6.9m³/s
Average flow
estimate
May–Aug
Best months
1,404m
Elevation
The water at Handek, month by month
It roars from April to June.
The fullest months: from April to June, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from January to February. Below −4 °C on average (from January to February): the falls can partly freeze.
- 2.5 m³/sJan
- 2.3 m³/sFeb
- 6.1 m³/sMar
- 11 m³/sApr
- 13 m³/sMay
- 12 m³/sJun
- 9.6 m³/sJul
- 9.4 m³/sAug
- 7.2 m³/sSep
- 6.3 m³/sOct
- 6.1 m³/sNov
- 4.2 m³/sDec
From about 2.3 m³/s in the lowest month to 13 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to August.
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.
Handek is a waterfall in Switzerland.
Getting there.
- Meiringennearest town · 16 km in a straight line
- Parking 130 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Bern Airport (BRN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 70 km in a straight lineCar hire at BRN airport (Bern)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.
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 304 m in 1.6 km.
What is around.
- 2viewpoints
- 7waymarked walking routesUndrists Diechter - Gelmer Hütte, Gelmersee - Bergstation Gelmerbahn, Gelmersee - Gelmersee and 4 more
- 13car parks
- —swimming spots
- 2picnic sites
- 2toilets
- 1information boards and visitor centres
- 2bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 2campsitesAlpenlodge Grimselpass, Stellplatz Alpenrösli
- 9hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmGruebenhütte, Grimsel Hospiz, Handegg and 6 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
- Meiringen16 km in a straight line
- Grindelwald21 km in a straight line
- Andermatt22 km in a straight line
- Lungern22 km in a straight line
- Engelberg24 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 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 13 | 18 | 20 | 19 | 15 | 11 | 4 | 0 |
| Night °C | -9 | -9 | -5 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 3 | -2 | -8 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 81 | 69 | 89 | 103 | 154 | 151 | 148 | 165 | 106 | 107 | 114 | 92 |
| Wet days | 14 | 12 | 15 | 16 | 20 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 16 | 15 |
| Sun h/day | 4.1 | 5.5 | 6.4 | 5.9 | 5.7 | 7.4 | 7.9 | 7.1 | 6.1 | 4.7 | 3.4 | 3.4 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 57 | 68 | 58 | 27 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 19 | 37 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,404 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 | 45% | 136% | 85% | 60% | 80% | 138% | 61% | 150% | 91% | 197% | 17% | 122% |
| 2021 | 175% | 77% | 57% | 62% | 101% | 104% | 227% | 73% | 103% | 73% | 75% | 102% |
| 2022 | 45% | 115% | 19% | 81% | 77% | 94% | 73% | 66% | 149% | 103% | 65% | 97% |
| 2023 | 55% | 28% | 126% | 117% | 121% | 82% | 91% | 128% | 113% | 156% | 155% | 163% |
| 2024 | 100% | 138% | 217% | 106% | 164% | 145% | 108% | 68% | 194% | 153% | 51% | 92% |
| 2025 | 132% | 50% | 90% | 118% | 100% | 100% | 148% | 105% | 195% | 80% | 78% | 34% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Handek
Switzerland
- —Height
- 6.9 m³/sAverage flow
- May–AugBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q4133216) · 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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