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Venezuela Venezuela Waterfall UNESCO World Heritage

Kama Falls

A 53 m drop.

When to go

Salto Kama - Gran Sabana
Paolo Costa Baldi · CC BY-SA 3.0

In numbers.

53m

Height

11m³/s

Average flow

estimate

May–Aug

Best months

5.9MW

Water power

estimate

The water at Kama Falls, month by month

It roars from June to August.

The fullest months: from June to August. The thinnest: from November to April.

  1. 6.3 m³/sJan
  2. 5.6 m³/sFeb
  3. 5.1 m³/sMar
  4. 7.3 m³/sApr
  5. 13 m³/sMay
  6. 18 m³/sJun
  7. 17 m³/sJul
  8. 15 m³/sAug
  9. 11 m³/sSep
  10. 7.6 m³/sOct
  11. 7.0 m³/sNov
  12. 6.8 m³/sDec
high water best months to go

From about 5.1 m³/s in the lowest month to 18 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 in Venezuela

Kama Falls is a waterfall in Venezuela. The water falls 53 m. It lies within Canaima National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Getting there.

Plan your visit

Stay, explore and get there

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How big is it?

How big it really is.

53 mKama Falls1.8 ma person9.0 ma house56 mTower of Pisa

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

5.9 MW

About 11 m³/s falling 53 m: the power of the water as it drops.

  • as much as 2.0 large wind turbines
  • enough to power about 1,500 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.

Kama 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 Río Kama through the falls
960 m980 m1,000 m1,020 mKama 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 56 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 64 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

  • 1viewpointsMirador del Kama
  • —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
  • 18caves
  • —campsites
  • 1hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmCabañas Kama-Merú
  • —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.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C262628282625252626272626
Night °C161617181817171818181817
Rain & snow (mm)644744122256296240206109759083
Wet days131110172527272418151716
Sun h/day6.96.86.66.46.06.46.77.27.87.56.86.4

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (983 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Cascade 2014
Emmanuel de los Santos Araque · CC BY-SA 3.0
Gran Sabana, Salto Kama Merú.
LHommeDuMonde · CC BY-SA 3.0
Kama meru con arcoiris
ZuliannyGM · 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
202040%15%108%38%67%137%83%168%84%41%164%84%
2021100%43%360%113%102%71%117%182%92%216%143%251%
202297%118%368%116%80%119%119%67%75%148%226%188%
202381%84%95%124%100%61%101%38%6%40%15%27%
202410%9%34%49%98%81%82%54%26%52%25%27%
202537%63%101%75%73%96%106%37%14%102%47%54%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Kama Falls

Venezuela

  • 53 mHeight
  • 11 m³/sAverage flow
  • May–AugBest months

King George VI Falls

Guyana

  • 160 mHeight
  • 20 m³/sAverage flow
  • May–AugBest months

See the guide

Aponwao Falls

Venezuela

  • 98 mHeight
  • 62 m³/sAverage flow
  • May–AugBest months

See the guide

Cuquenan Falls

Venezuela

  • —Height
  • —Average flow
  • May–AugBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q6117533) · 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.