Guyana 
In numbers.
226m
Height
663m³/s
Average flow
May–Aug
Best months
1.5GW
Water power
estimate
The water at Kaieteur Falls, month by month
It roars from June to August.
The fullest months: from June to August. The thinnest: from October to April.
- 470 m³/sJan
- 413 m³/sFeb
- 356 m³/sMar
- 493 m³/sApr
- 958 m³/sMay
- 1,289 m³/sJun
- 1,254 m³/sJul
- 1,047 m³/sAug
- 668 m³/sSep
- 455 m³/sOct
- 428 m³/sNov
- 470 m³/sDec
From about 356 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,289 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to August.
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 Potaro River in Guyana
Kaieteur Falls is a waterfall in Guyana. The water falls 226 m over a front 113 m wide. It lies within Kaieteur National Park.
Getting there.
- Kaieteur Airport (KAI)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 1 km in a straight lineCar hire at GEO airport (Georgetown)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to Augustbest 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.
1.5 GW
About 663 m³/s falling 226 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 490 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 367,500 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 295 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 49 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 3viewpointsJohnson's Viewpoint, Boy Scout Viewpoint, Rainbow Viewpoint
- —waymarked walking routes
- —car 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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 29 | 29 | 30 | 30 | 27 | 26 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 29 | 29 |
| Night °C | 20 | 20 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 89 | 65 | 54 | 123 | 254 | 284 | 237 | 190 | 88 | 68 | 87 | 98 |
| Wet days | 13 | 11 | 10 | 16 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 23 | 15 | 12 | 14 | 16 |
| Sun h/day | 5.3 | 4.8 | 5.1 | 5.1 | 4.6 | 5.4 | 6.3 | 7.3 | 7.8 | 7.2 | 6.0 | 5.0 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (412 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 | 33% | 11% | 93% | 44% | 61% | 131% | 85% | 142% | 83% | 56% | 195% | 70% |
| 2021 | 74% | 27% | 196% | 104% | 108% | 85% | 116% | 181% | 91% | 186% | 84% | 190% |
| 2022 | 58% | 80% | 263% | 121% | 89% | 119% | 126% | 72% | 99% | 142% | 250% | 133% |
| 2023 | 71% | 69% | 41% | 114% | 71% | 49% | 94% | 32% | 13% | 27% | 18% | 30% |
| 2024 | 15% | 12% | 17% | 51% | 104% | 93% | 80% | 59% | 22% | 39% | 12% | 39% |
| 2025 | 35% | 64% | 76% | 90% | 80% | 100% | 93% | 47% | 14% | 73% | 59% | 61% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Kaieteur Falls
Guyana
- 226 mHeight
- 663 m³/sAverage flow
- May–AugBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q38120) · 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.
The family
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