South Africa 
In numbers.
12m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Dec–Mar
Best months
931m
Elevation
The water at Hart's Hill Falls, month by month
It roars from December to February.
The fullest months: from December to February. The thinnest: from May to September.
- 30 m³/sJan
- 27 m³/sFeb
- 22 m³/sMar
- 14 m³/sApr
- 7.0 m³/sMay
- 4.2 m³/sJun
- 3.6 m³/sJul
- 4.1 m³/sAug
- 6.2 m³/sSep
- 13 m³/sOct
- 21 m³/sNov
- 28 m³/sDec
From about 3.6 m³/s in the lowest month to 30 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from December 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 Tugela River, South Africa
Hart's Hill Falls is a waterfall in South Africa.
Getting there.
- Colensonearest town · 4.8 km in a straight line
- Pietermaritzburg Airport (PZB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 119 km in a straight lineCar hire at PZB airport (Pietermaritzburg)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From December 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 35 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 44 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
- Colenso4.8 km in a straight line
- Ladysmith17 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 | 32 | 31 | 29 | 26 | 24 | 21 | 21 | 24 | 28 | 30 | 31 | 32 |
| Night °C | 17 | 16 | 15 | 12 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 134 | 108 | 86 | 48 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 19 | 37 | 82 | 111 | 132 |
| Wet days | 23 | 19 | 17 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 15 | 19 | 23 |
| Sun h/day | 8.0 | 8.3 | 8.1 | 7.7 | 8.5 | 8.4 | 8.7 | 8.7 | 8.3 | 7.4 | 7.8 | 8.0 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (931 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 | 58% | 90% | 65% | 191% | 14% | 220% | 31% | 23% | 53% | 105% | 107% | 128% |
| 2021 | 133% | 115% | 62% | 82% | 74% | 65% | 67% | 148% | 195% | 51% | 64% | 121% |
| 2022 | 173% | 105% | 118% | 282% | 323% | 92% | 46% | 45% | 64% | 106% | 130% | 180% |
| 2023 | 87% | 158% | 60% | 39% | 418% | 42% | 93% | 210% | 38% | 142% | 54% | 140% |
| 2024 | 101% | 56% | 83% | 109% | 34% | 105% | 7% | 28% | 246% | 97% | 92% | 70% |
| 2025 | 120% | 147% | 233% | 244% | 21% | 92% | 156% | 85% | 272% | 65% | 138% | 130% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Hart's Hill Falls
South Africa
- —Height
- 12 m³/sAverage flow
- Dec–MarBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q31919411) · 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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