Zambia / Tanzania 
In numbers.
235m
Height
36m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Dec–Mar
Best months
84MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Kalambo Falls, month by month
It roars from December to March.
The fullest months: from December to March. The thinnest: from May to October.
- 85 m³/sJan
- 74 m³/sFeb
- 69 m³/sMar
- 44 m³/sApr
- 20 m³/sMay
- 8.8 m³/sJun
- 6.4 m³/sJul
- 6.4 m³/sAug
- 6.4 m³/sSep
- 8.1 m³/sOct
- 30 m³/sNov
- 72 m³/sDec
From about 6.4 m³/s in the lowest month to 85 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from December to March.
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 Kalambo River in Zambia and Tanzania
Kalambo Falls is a waterfall in Zambia. The water falls 235 m.
Getting there.
- Mpulungunearest town · 23 km in a straight line
- Parking 310 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Songwe Airport (MBI)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 226 km in a straight lineCar hire at NLA airport (Ndola)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From December to Marchbest 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.
84 MW
About 36 m³/s falling 235 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 28 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 21,000 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 248 m in 3.5 km. Here the river runs about 54 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 2viewpointsMbwilo
- —waymarked walking routes
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 1campsitesLuke's beach
- —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).
Towns nearby
- Mpulungu23 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 | 25 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 25 | 26 | 28 | 31 | 32 | 29 | 26 |
| Night °C | 20 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 13 | 15 | 18 | 20 | 21 | 20 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 236 | 180 | 196 | 93 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 30 | 141 | 262 |
| Wet days | 28 | 24 | 27 | 16 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 18 | 26 |
| Sun h/day | 5.0 | 6.0 | 6.5 | 7.8 | 9.2 | 10.1 | 10.3 | 10.1 | 9.6 | 8.9 | 7.3 | 5.6 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,170 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
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 | 109% | 190% | 186% | 97% | 215% | — | — | 190% | — | 139% | 234% | 95% |
| 2021 | 103% | 117% | 69% | 90% | 267% | — | — | 205% | — | 154% | 75% | 51% |
| 2022 | 332% | 207% | 124% | 76% | 91% | — | — | 400% | — | 14% | 131% | 96% |
| 2023 | 105% | 91% | 186% | 125% | 72% | — | — | 27% | — | 128% | 148% | 106% |
| 2024 | 299% | 116% | 96% | 240% | 100% | — | — | 95% | — | 139% | 87% | 91% |
| 2025 | 110% | 118% | 75% | 165% | 508% | — | — | 42% | — | 10% | 91% | 89% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Kalambo Falls
Zambia
- 235 mHeight
- 36 m³/sAverage flow
- Dec–MarBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q798283) · 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.
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