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DR Congo DR Congo Waterfall

Inga Falls

On the River Congo.

When to go

Inga03
Alaindg · CC BY 2.5

In numbers.

39,525m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Feb–May

Best months

64m

Elevation

The water at Inga Falls, month by month

It roars from December to May.

The fullest months: from December to May. The thinnest: from August to October.

  1. 49,008 m³/sJan
  2. 49,401 m³/sFeb
  3. 50,217 m³/sMar
  4. 51,345 m³/sApr
  5. 51,006 m³/sMay
  6. 45,685 m³/sJun
  7. 38,836 m³/sJul
  8. 33,305 m³/sAug
  9. 30,423 m³/sSep
  10. 33,713 m³/sOct
  11. 40,692 m³/sNov
  12. 46,432 m³/sDec
high water best months to go

From about 30,423 m³/s in the lowest month to 51,345 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from February to May.

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 Congo River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Inga Falls is a waterfall on the River Congo, in DR Congo.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there.

  • Parking 1,070 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
  • Mbanza Congo Airport (SSY)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 108 km in a straight line
  • From February to Maybest 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.

Inga Falls seen from above (Sentinel-2) N 2 km

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The Congo through the falls
55 m60 m65 m70 mInga Falls-1.5 km-1 km-0.5 km0+0.5 km+1 km+1.5 km← upstreamdownstream →

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
−690 m+690 m

Around the falls the river drops 14 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 68 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

  • 1viewpointsBelvedere Inga
  • —waymarked walking routes
  • 3car parks
  • —swimming spots
  • —picnic sites
  • —toilets
  • —information boards and visitor centres
  • —bus stops within 1 km
  • —other named waterfalls within 4 km
  • —caves
  • —campsites
  • —hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
  • —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).

Weather

The weather, month by month.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C313131303131323234333130
Night °C232424242321202022232323
Rain & snow (mm)12512918117012681525108173162
Wet days23222626191015192826
Sun h/day4.54.85.75.34.03.43.32.52.02.14.03.7

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (64 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.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2020154%107%97%74%138%382%—42%126%89%131%76%
202178%79%92%99%57%32%—30%91%50%108%93%
2022113%61%99%172%125%146%—42%52%109%161%91%
2023104%70%109%129%103%111%—17%99%122%116%143%
202441%102%72%63%56%157%—17%71%63%98%107%
202563%93%82%130%184%257%—11%90%58%83%81%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Inga Falls

DR Congo

  • —Height
  • 39,525 m³/sAverage flow
  • Feb–MayBest months

Yellala Falls

DR Congo

  • —Height
  • 39,535 m³/sAverage flow
  • Mar–JunBest months

See the guide

Livingstone Falls

Republic of the Congo

  • —Height
  • 42,000 m³/sAverage flow
  • Apr, Nov–JanBest months

See the guide

Zongo Falls

DR Congo

  • 65 mHeight
  • 291 m³/sAverage flow
  • Apr–May, Dec–JanBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q19558) · CC0
River flow and catchmentHydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0
ClimateNASA POWER, 1991–2020
Relief, river profile, 3D modelCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Paths, viewpoints, parking© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX 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.