China 
In numbers.
915m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Aug–Nov
Best months
448m
Elevation
The water at Hukou Waterfalls, month by month
It roars from August to October.
The fullest months: from August to October. The thinnest: from January to April.
- 471 m³/sJan
- 390 m³/sFeb
- 507 m³/sMar
- 647 m³/sApr
- 762 m³/sMay
- 873 m³/sJun
- 1,164 m³/sJul
- 1,418 m³/sAug
- 1,635 m³/sSep
- 1,542 m³/sOct
- 1,151 m³/sNov
- 785 m³/sDec
From about 390 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,635 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from August to November.
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 Yellow River in China; second largest waterfall in China
Hukou Waterfalls is a waterfall in China.
Getting there.
- Jichangnearest town · 21 km in a straight line
- Parking 290 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Yan'an Nanniwan Airport (ENY)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 95 km in a straight line
- From August to Novemberbest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
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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 21 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 199 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 3viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 2car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- —campsites
- 3hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km壶口观景楼大酒店, 吉县壶口客栈, 望河楼大酒店
- —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
- Jichang21 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 | 8 | 16 | 23 | 29 | 33 | 34 | 32 | 27 | 20 | 12 | 5 |
| Night °C | -6 | -3 | 2 | 8 | 14 | 19 | 22 | 20 | 15 | 8 | 1 | -5 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 6 | 10 | 12 | 32 | 49 | 67 | 120 | 109 | 94 | 43 | 19 | 4 |
| Wet days | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 15 | 14 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 1 |
| Sun h/day | 6.2 | 6.3 | 7.6 | 7.9 | 8.1 | 7.5 | 6.5 | 5.9 | 5.0 | 5.6 | 6.0 | 6.3 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 14 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 12 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (448 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 | 383% | 151% | 87% | 62% | 116% | 167% | 91% | 245% | 36% | 81% | 181% | — |
| 2021 | 47% | 277% | 185% | 144% | 115% | 69% | 121% | 132% | 245% | 232% | 73% | — |
| 2022 | 168% | 44% | 118% | 106% | 71% | 127% | 182% | 124% | 24% | 151% | 131% | — |
| 2023 | 95% | 107% | 77% | 309% | 222% | 95% | 86% | 121% | 107% | 58% | 100% | — |
| 2024 | 263% | 171% | 207% | 149% | 39% | 58% | 136% | 122% | 73% | 132% | 120% | — |
| 2025 | 278% | 25% | 245% | 31% | 71% | 146% | 104% | 185% | 202% | 384% | 61% | — |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q602973) · 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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