United Kingdom 
In numbers.
29m
Height
OpenStreetMap
5.0m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr
Aug–Oct
Best months
1.4MW
Water power
estimate
The water at High Force, month by month
It roars in August and from October to March.
The fullest months: August and from October to March.
- 7.3 m³/sJan
- 5.8 m³/sFeb
- 4.8 m³/sMar
- 3.2 m³/sApr
- 2.3 m³/sMay
- 2.5 m³/sJun
- 3.4 m³/sJul
- 5.0 m³/sAug
- 4.1 m³/sSep
- 5.8 m³/sOct
- 7.1 m³/sNov
- 7.6 m³/sDec
From about 2.3 m³/s in the lowest month to 7.6 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: April and from August to October.
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 on the River Tees in County Durham, England
High Force is a waterfall in United Kingdom. The water falls 29 m over a front 2 m wide.
Getting there.
- Holwicknearest town · 3.2 km in a straight line
- Parking 570 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Teesside International Airport (MME)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 51 km in a straight lineCar hire at NCL airport (Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- April and from August to Octoberbest 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.
1.4 MW
About 5.0 m³/s falling 29 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 353 homes, if it were all turned into electricity
Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.
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 64 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 38 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 3viewpointsHigh Force
- 3waymarked walking routesPennine Way (Middleton in Teesdale to Kirk Yetholm), Teesdale Way (Dufton to Middleton in Teesdale), High Force Geotrail
- 5car parks
- —swimming spots
- 9picnic sites
- 1toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- 4bus stops within 1 km
- 9other named waterfalls within 4 kmLow Force, "Upper" Low Force, Sand Force and 6 more
- —caves
- 1campsitesLow Way Farm Camping Site
- 4hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmEast Underhurth Farm B&B, High Force Hotel, Langdon Beck Hotel and 1 more
- 1restaurants 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
- Holwick3.2 km in a straight line
- Newbiggin3.5 km in a straight line
- Mickleton10 km in a straight line
- Eggleston13 km in a straight line
- Romaldkirk13 km in a straight line
- Stanhope16 km in a straight line
- Barnard Castle21 km in a straight line
- Appleby-in-Westmorland21 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 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 15 | 11 | 7 | 5 |
| Night °C | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 1 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 116 | 93 | 85 | 69 | 82 | 103 | 117 | 131 | 96 | 122 | 121 | 124 |
| Wet days | 19 | 16 | 17 | 15 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 17 | 19 | 20 | 20 |
| Sun h/day | 0.9 | 2.3 | 3.8 | 5.8 | 6.7 | 5.8 | 5.8 | 5.0 | 4.2 | 2.4 | 1.3 | 0.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 10 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (315 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 | 94% | 242% | 97% | 28% | 36% | 127% | 123% | 118% | 79% | 126% | 106% | 134% |
| 2021 | 139% | 158% | 121% | 25% | 164% | 31% | 73% | 64% | 72% | 161% | 61% | 103% |
| 2022 | 49% | 181% | 64% | 78% | 103% | 71% | 67% | 48% | 100% | 115% | 111% | 80% |
| 2023 | 100% | 46% | 165% | 116% | 57% | 63% | 167% | 84% | 153% | 89% | 124% | 163% |
| 2024 | 146% | 125% | 136% | 195% | 141% | 76% | 84% | 92% | 85% | 87% | 50% | 108% |
| 2025 | 74% | 67% | 45% | 33% | 67% | 110% | 93% | 46% | 192% | 84% | 147% | 123% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
High Force
United Kingdom
- 29 mHeight
- 5.0 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr, Aug–OctBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37389) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| 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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