Norway 
In numbers.
299m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr–Jun
Sep
Best months
9m
Elevation
The water at Hellefossen, month by month
It roars from April to October.
The fullest months: from April to October. Below −4 °C on average (January): the falls can partly freeze.
- 294 m³/sJan
- 105 m³/sFeb
- 212 m³/sMar
- 530 m³/sApr
- 786 m³/sMay
- 702 m³/sJun
- 523 m³/sJul
- 507 m³/sAug
- 543 m³/sSep
- 552 m³/sOct
- 455 m³/sNov
- 341 m³/sDec
From about 105 m³/s in the lowest month to 786 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to June and 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.
Getting there.
- Hokksundnearest town · 1.8 km in a straight line
- Parking 1,340 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Sandefjord Airport, Torp (TRF)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 70 km in a straight lineCar hire at TRF airport (Sandefjord)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April to June and 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.
Around the falls the river drops 8 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 45 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- —viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 55car parks
- —swimming spots
- 15picnic sites
- 3toilets
- 6information boards and visitor centres
- 7bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 2campsitesHokksund Camping
- 1hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmSanden Hotell
- 8restaurants 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
- Hokksund1.8 km in a straight line
- Mjøndalen8.0 km in a straight line
- Drammen18 km in a straight line
- Lampeland19 km in a straight line
- Kongsberg19 km in a straight line
- Lierbyen19 km in a straight line
- Tranby20 km in a straight line
- Vikersund21 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 | -2 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 16 | 20 | 22 | 21 | 16 | 9 | 3 | -1 |
| Night °C | -7 | -7 | -4 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 14 | 12 | 8 | 3 | -1 | -6 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 76 | 58 | 57 | 62 | 95 | 100 | 116 | 122 | 98 | 104 | 91 | 76 |
| Wet days | 13 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 17 | 16 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 13 |
| Sun h/day | 0.6 | 2.4 | 5.2 | 6.6 | 7.3 | 8.6 | 7.6 | 6.2 | 4.7 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 0.4 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 30 | 40 | 34 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 16 | 24 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (9 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 | 94% | 110% | 121% | 79% | 42% | 134% | 113% | 45% | 113% | 183% | 97% | 251% |
| 2021 | 91% | 69% | 90% | 38% | 138% | 72% | 138% | 25% | 94% | 125% | 83% | 52% |
| 2022 | 62% | 140% | 25% | 36% | 66% | 102% | 62% | 54% | 134% | 93% | 184% | 102% |
| 2023 | 171% | 92% | 131% | 218% | 31% | 73% | 158% | 223% | 118% | 44% | 111% | 100% |
| 2024 | 106% | 192% | 217% | 107% | 95% | 124% | 132% | 128% | 125% | 99% | 41% | 116% |
| 2025 | 154% | 58% | 48% | 61% | 56% | 85% | 115% | 86% | 171% | 142% | 120% | 131% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Hellefossen
Norway
- —Height
- 299 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr–Jun, SepBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q34672742) · 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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