Zambia 
In numbers.
25m
Height
OpenStreetMap
83m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jan–Apr
Best months
20MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Kabwelume Falls, month by month
It roars from January to March.
The fullest months: from January to March. The thinnest: from June to October.
- 190 m³/sJan
- 185 m³/sFeb
- 170 m³/sMar
- 117 m³/sApr
- 72 m³/sMay
- 31 m³/sJun
- 20 m³/sJul
- 20 m³/sAug
- 20 m³/sSep
- 24 m³/sOct
- 67 m³/sNov
- 138 m³/sDec
From about 20 m³/s in the lowest month to 190 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from January to April.
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 in Zambia
Kabwelume Falls is a waterfall in Zambia. The water falls 25 m over a front 70 m wide.
Getting there.
- Lubumbashi International Airport (FBM)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 304 km in a straight lineCar hire at NLA airport (Ndola)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From January to Aprilbest 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 as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
20 MW
About 83 m³/s falling 25 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 6.8 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 5,100 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.
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 39 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 34 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- —viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 1campsitesLumangwe Falls
- —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 | 26 | 27 | 27 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 31 | 34 | 34 | 30 | 26 |
| Night °C | 18 | 18 | 18 | 17 | 15 | 13 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 20 | 19 | 18 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 220 | 161 | 183 | 72 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 37 | 155 | 232 |
| Wet days | 29 | 24 | 28 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 22 | 29 |
| Sun h/day | 5.2 | 6.0 | 6.7 | 8.4 | 9.9 | 10.4 | 10.4 | 9.9 | 9.0 | 8.1 | 6.5 | 5.4 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,116 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 | 104% | 181% | 179% | 63% | 105% | — | — | — | 118% | 131% | 177% | 97% |
| 2021 | 98% | 144% | 95% | 91% | 232% | — | — | — | 41% | 130% | 93% | 66% |
| 2022 | 134% | 195% | 89% | 79% | 71% | — | — | — | 18% | 25% | 142% | 116% |
| 2023 | 98% | 113% | 178% | 238% | 29% | — | — | — | 114% | 313% | 198% | 123% |
| 2024 | 193% | 141% | 76% | 220% | 100% | — | — | — | 50% | 119% | 72% | 47% |
| 2025 | 95% | 115% | 94% | 104% | 714% | — | — | — | 45% | 34% | 79% | 74% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Kabwelume Falls
Zambia
- 25 mHeight
- 83 m³/sAverage flow
- Jan–AprBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q16888311) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| 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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