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Angola Angola Waterfall

Kalandula Falls

A 105 m drop.

When to go

Kalandula waterfalls of the Lucala-River in Malange, Angola
Paulo César Santos · CC0

In numbers.

105m

Height

107m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Mar–Apr
Dec–Jan

Best months

110MW

Water power

estimate

The water at Kalandula Falls, month by month

It roars from March to April and from November to January.

The fullest months: from March to April and from November to January. The thinnest: from June to September.

  1. 221 m³/sJan
  2. 178 m³/sFeb
  3. 197 m³/sMar
  4. 200 m³/sApr
  5. 138 m³/sMay
  6. 66 m³/sJun
  7. 22 m³/sJul
  8. 20 m³/sAug
  9. 28 m³/sSep
  10. 93 m³/sOct
  11. 201 m³/sNov
  12. 244 m³/sDec
high water best months to go

From about 20 m³/s in the lowest month to 244 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from March to April and from December to January.

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 Lucala River in Angola

Kalandula Falls is a waterfall in Angola. The water falls 105 m.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there.

Plan your visit

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How big is it?

How big it really is.

105 mKalandulaFalls1.8 ma person93 mStatue ofLiberty96 mBig Ben139 mGreat Pyramid

Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.

110 MW

About 107 m³/s falling 105 m: the power of the water as it drops.

  • as much as 37 large wind turbines
  • enough to power about 27,600 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.

Kalandula 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 Lucala through the falls
950 m1,000 m1,050 mKalandula 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 123 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 46 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

  • —viewpoints
  • —waymarked walking routes
  • —car parks
  • —swimming spots
  • 1picnic sites
  • —toilets
  • —information boards and visitor centres
  • —bus stops within 1 km
  • —other named waterfalls within 4 km
  • —caves
  • 1campsites
  • 3hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmAldeamento Turistico Grape, Hotel Yolaca, Pousada de Calandula
  • 1restaurants 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

  • Calandula5.7 km in a straight line
  • Cota24 km in a straight line

Weather

The weather, month by month.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C282828283031313233302727
Night °C181818181714141618191818
Rain & snow (mm)961011371052020632112166124
Wet days2322252060029242726
Sun h/day5.96.06.57.08.99.18.56.96.35.95.65.5

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,052 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Kalandula Falls C
Zorglub · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quedas-Kalandula 01 Bem-Vindo LWS-2011-08 QD14
L.Willms · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quedas-Kalandula 02 Aproximando-se LWS-2011-08 QD15-4
L.Willms · CC BY-SA 3.0

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
202078%76%143%150%30%——11%9%49%47%43%
202182%51%62%95%287%——21%57%66%60%92%
202298%71%119%157%71%——45%20%30%25%62%
202358%79%83%144%92%——11%88%71%91%110%
202486%188%105%124%15%——29%40%33%60%122%
202548%167%72%138%212%——21%27%31%49%90%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q940305) · 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.