Russia / Norway 
In numbers.
150m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jun–Sep
Best months
20m
Elevation
The water at Harefossen, month by month
It roars from May to July.
The fullest months: from May to July, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from December to March. Below −4 °C on average (from November to March): the falls can partly freeze.
- 80 m³/sJan
- 73 m³/sFeb
- 74 m³/sMar
- 108 m³/sApr
- 184 m³/sMay
- 198 m³/sJun
- 183 m³/sJul
- 147 m³/sAug
- 136 m³/sSep
- 120 m³/sOct
- 101 m³/sNov
- 91 m³/sDec
From about 73 m³/s in the lowest month to 198 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to September.
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.
Earlier rapids in River Pasvik
Harefossen is a waterfall in Russia.
Getting there.
- Bjørnevatnnearest town · 9.5 km in a straight line
- Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen (KKN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 17 km in a straight lineCar hire at KKN airport (Kirkenes)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From June to Septemberbest 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.
Here the river runs about 62 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- —viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- —campsites
- —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).
Towns nearby
- Bjørnevatn9.5 km in a straight line
- Kirkenes14 km in a straight line
- Nikel22 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 | -7 | -7 | -3 | 1 | 7 | 12 | 17 | 14 | 10 | 2 | -3 | -5 |
| Night °C | -13 | -13 | -9 | -4 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 9 | 5 | -1 | -7 | -11 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 42 | 34 | 41 | 45 | 73 | 87 | 103 | 95 | 69 | 65 | 43 | 46 |
| Wet days | 13 | 11 | 13 | 13 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 14 |
| Sun h/day | 0.5 | 2.0 | 5.4 | 7.1 | 6.9 | 6.6 | 6.3 | 4.2 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 0.3 | — |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 43 | 53 | 58 | 46 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 21 | 30 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (20 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
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 | 163% | 133% | 143% | 143% | 115% | 117% | 86% | 120% | 93% | 86% | 92% | 67% |
| 2021 | 90% | 124% | 111% | 113% | 168% | 128% | 130% | 163% | 58% | 157% | 124% | 109% |
| 2022 | 126% | 128% | 111% | 89% | 87% | 74% | 121% | 101% | 144% | 127% | 68% | 68% |
| 2023 | 103% | 148% | 134% | 52% | 115% | 53% | 78% | 100% | 209% | 82% | 63% | 50% |
| 2024 | 93% | 88% | 105% | 110% | 86% | 100% | 64% | 54% | 126% | 83% | 178% | 148% |
| 2025 | 164% | 120% | 123% | 181% | 114% | 87% | 112% | 129% | 131% | 129% | 128% | 180% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Harefossen
Russia
- —Height
- 150 m³/sAverage flow
- Jun–SepBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q19373648) · 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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