United States / Canada 
In numbers.
51m
Height
8,716m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr–Jul
Best months
4.4GW
Water power
estimate
The water at Horseshoe Falls, month by month
It roars from March to July and from November to December.
The fullest months: from March to July and from November to December.
- 8,554 m³/sJan
- 8,292 m³/sFeb
- 8,570 m³/sMar
- 9,503 m³/sApr
- 9,879 m³/sMay
- 9,593 m³/sJun
- 9,103 m³/sJul
- 8,158 m³/sAug
- 7,880 m³/sSep
- 8,492 m³/sOct
- 8,636 m³/sNov
- 8,565 m³/sDec
From about 7,880 m³/s in the lowest month to 9,879 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to July.
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 of the Niagara Falls
Horseshoe Falls is a waterfall in United States. The water falls 51 m over a front 823 m wide. It lies within Niagara Falls State Park.
Getting there.
- Niagara Fallsnearest town · 2.5 km in a straight line
- Parking 540 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Niagara Falls International Airport (IAG)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 11 km in a straight lineCar hire at IAG airport (Niagara Falls)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April to Julybest 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 from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
4.4 GW
About 8,716 m³/s falling 51 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 1,451 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 1,088,000 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 68 m in 2.1 km. Here the river runs about 91 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 25viewpointsSkylon Tower, Terrapin Point, lookout of falls and 22 more
- 1waymarked walking routesOlympic Torch Run Legacy Trail
- 529car parks
- —swimming spots
- 19picnic sites
- 22toilets
- 32information boards and visitor centres
- 41bus stops within 1 km
- 2other named waterfalls within 4 kmAmerican Falls, Bridal Veil Falls
- —caves
- 4campsitesYogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp and Resort, Campark Resorts Camping, Scotts Tent & Trailer Park and 1 more
- 175hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHI Niagara Falls, Cozy Inn B&B, Super 8 and 172 more
- 178restaurants 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
- Niagara Falls2.5 km in a straight line
- Niagara Falls2.6 km in a straight line
- Chippawa3.2 km in a straight line
- Grand Island10 km in a straight line
- Thorold11 km in a straight line
- Lewiston11 km in a straight line
- Grandyle Village13 km in a straight line
- Tonawanda17 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 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 18 | 23 | 27 | 26 | 23 | 15 | 9 | 3 |
| Night °C | -5 | -6 | -2 | 2 | 9 | 15 | 19 | 19 | 15 | 9 | 3 | -2 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 59 | 51 | 58 | 75 | 81 | 80 | 86 | 71 | 81 | 89 | 70 | 70 |
| Wet days | 14 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 15 | 14 | 15 |
| Sun h/day | 2.5 | 3.3 | 4.9 | 6.0 | 7.3 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 7.8 | 6.7 | 3.9 | 2.8 | 2.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 17 | 16 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 16 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (101 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 | 132% | 89% | 85% | 61% | 63% | 54% | 75% | 67% | 43% | 69% | 69% | 72% |
| 2021 | 52% | 56% | 39% | 56% | 34% | 64% | 119% | 71% | 99% | 99% | 58% | 63% |
| 2022 | 71% | 120% | 68% | 72% | 69% | 61% | 70% | 79% | 76% | 48% | 101% | 88% |
| 2023 | 115% | 96% | 114% | 106% | 37% | 83% | 131% | 111% | 35% | 78% | 66% | 100% |
| 2024 | 139% | 44% | 76% | 122% | 66% | 82% | 86% | 83% | 61% | 41% | 71% | 98% |
| 2025 | 50% | 77% | 61% | 74% | 83% | 61% | 48% | 61% | 35% | 96% | 62% | 91% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Horseshoe Falls
United States
- 51 mHeight
- 8,716 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr–JulBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q1373778) · 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.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit 
lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit 
mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.You are here
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit 
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit