Argentina / Brazil Horseshoe falls UNESCO World Heritage

Iguaçu Falls

A 82 m drop on the Iguazu River.

When to go

Mayra Villas Boas Francisco Zamulko Alt version WB, shadowns, noise, sharpening were alter · CC BY-SA 4.0

In numbers.

82m

Height

1,756m³/s

Average flow

May–Jun
Nov–Dec

Best months

1.4GW

Water power

estimate

The water at Iguaçu Falls, month by month

It roars from May to June and from October to January.

The fullest months: from May to June and from October to January.

1,837 m³/sJan
1,724 m³/sFeb
1,565 m³/sMar
1,567 m³/sApr
1,807 m³/sMay
1,808 m³/sJun
1,675 m³/sJul
1,372 m³/sAug
1,422 m³/sSep
1,851 m³/sOct
2,009 m³/sNov
2,084 m³/sDec

high water best months to go

From about 1,372 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,084 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to June and from November to December.

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.

Waterfalls on the Igazú River on the border of Misiones, Argentina and Paraná, Brazil

Iguaçu Falls is a horseshoe falls on the Iguazu River, in Argentina. The water falls 82 m over a front 2,700 m wide. It lies within Iguaçu National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Getting there.

Puerto Iguazúnearest town · 17 km in a straight line
Parking 310 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
Cataratas Del Iguazú International Airport (IGR)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 6 km in a straight lineCar hire at IGR airport (Puerto Iguazu)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
From May to June and from November to Decemberbest months to go (estimate)

Plan your visit

Stay, explore and get there

Car hire at IGR airport (Puerto Iguazu)Discover CarsSee

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.

1.4 GW

About 1,756 m³/s falling 82 m: the power of the water as it drops.

as much as 471 large wind turbines
enough to power about 353,100 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.

The Río Iguazú through the falls

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.

The valley below the falls

Around the falls the river drops 61 m in 3.4 km. Here the river runs about 27 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

27viewpointsMirante Foz do Iguaçu, Torre Tanque, Mirador Salto Eva and 24 more
—waymarked walking routes
3car parks
—swimming spots
5picnic sites
11toilets
9information boards and visitor centres
3bus stops within 1 km
19other named waterfalls within 4 kmSalto Mbiguá, Salto Mitre, Saltos Tres Mosqueteros and 16 more
—caves
1campsitesCamping El Ñandú
2hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmGran Meliá Iguazú, Belmond Hotel das Cataratas
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

Puerto Iguazú17 km in a straight line
Foz do Iguaçu22 km in a straight line
Presidente Franco23 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	32	32	29	24	22	22	24	27	29	30	32
Night °C	24	23	22	19	15	14	13	14	16	20	21	23
Rain & snow (mm)	147	129	117	124	163	108	85	70	121	211	159	179
Wet days	17	16	14	11	11	11	9	7	11	15	13	16
Sun h/day	8.2	7.5	7.7	7.1	5.6	5.2	5.8	6.6	6.3	6.5	8.0	8.1

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (167 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Cataratas Iguazu vista general — DINOCBA · CC BY 3.0

Iguazu National Park Falls — Tomfriedel · CC BY 3.0

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	117%	95%	54%	38%	133%	137%	43%	204%	24%	24%	42%	116%
2021	181%	22%	60%	11%	20%	115%	54%	69%	74%	132%	43%	6%
2022	83%	73%	165%	137%	98%	75%	69%	224%	175%	182%	46%	30%
2023	100%	146%	54%	113%	68%	65%	130%	100%	99%	160%	155%	80%
2024	71%	97%	62%	125%	117%	132%	199%	47%	69%	58%	83%	105%
2025	50%	68%	35%	53%	38%	199%	97%	145%	92%	78%	82%	106%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Iguaçu Falls

Argentina

82 mHeight
1,756 m³/sAverage flow
May–Jun, Nov–DecBest months

Devil's Throat

Argentina

—Height
1,826 m³/sAverage flow
—Best months

See the guide

Saltos del Monday

Paraguay

40 mHeight
164 m³/sAverage flow
May–Jun, Nov–DecBest months

See the guide

Moconá Waterfalls

Argentina

—Height
2,235 m³/sAverage flow
Jun, Oct–DecBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, river	Wikidata (Q36332) · 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.