Canada 
In numbers.
840m
Height
5m
Width
May–Jun
Best months
1,084m
Elevation
The water at James Bruce Falls, month by month
It roars from March to May and from November to January.
The fullest months: from March to May and from November to January, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: August. Below −4 °C on average (from December to February): the falls can partly freeze.
- 84%Jan
- 58%Feb
- 76%Mar
- 93%Apr
- 93%May
- 62%Jun
- 30%Jul
- 18%Aug
- 29%Sep
- 60%Oct
- 100%Nov
- 89%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to June.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall in Princess Louisa Marine Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada; highest waterfall in North America
James Bruce Falls is a waterfall in Canada. The water falls 840 m over a front 5 m wide. It lies within Princess Louisa Marine Provincial Park.
Getting there.
- Powell River Airport (YPW)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 67 km in a straight lineCar hire at YQQ airport (Comox)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to Junebest 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.
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 1,327 m in 1.7 km. Here the river runs about 80 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- —viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 1toilets
- 1information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 5other named waterfalls within 4 kmChatterbox Falls, Snake Falls, One Eye Falls and 2 more
- —caves
- 1campsitesMacdonald Island
- —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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | -2 | -1 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 15 | 18 | 18 | 14 | 8 | 1 | -2 |
| Night °C | -7 | -8 | -5 | -2 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 1 | -4 | -8 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 291 | 152 | 226 | 126 | 88 | 86 | 59 | 68 | 121 | 221 | 317 | 264 |
| Wet days | 20 | 16 | 20 | 17 | 15 | 16 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 18 | 21 | 20 |
| Sun h/day | 1.7 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 5.8 | 7.7 | 6.9 | 8.9 | 8.4 | 6.0 | 3.6 | 1.7 | 1.5 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 88 | 103 | 106 | 66 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 24 | 55 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,084 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 | 179% | 106% | 64% | 47% | 103% | 147% | 110% | 148% | 121% | 107% | 94% | 93% |
| 2021 | 97% | 92% | 72% | 57% | 90% | 79% | 45% | 75% | 176% | 141% | 143% | 88% |
| 2022 | 87% | 58% | 63% | 137% | 183% | 129% | 78% | 57% | 36% | 60% | 41% | 83% |
| 2023 | 64% | 127% | 37% | 142% | 49% | 66% | 99% | 80% | 74% | 76% | 57% | 104% |
| 2024 | 106% | 103% | 69% | 89% | 116% | 145% | 53% | 150% | 82% | 116% | 74% | 95% |
| 2025 | 18% | 73% | 118% | 60% | 105% | 55% | 98% | 159% | 130% | 107% | 72% | 150% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
James Bruce Falls
Canada
- 840 mHeight
- —Average flow
- May–JunBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q2594129) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| 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
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