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Burkina Faso Burkina Faso Waterfall

Karfiguéla waterfalls

One of the waterfalls of Burkina Faso.

When to go

Cascades de karfiguela à Banfora
Masséni Héma · CC BY-SA 4.0

In numbers.

2.0m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Jul–Sep

Best months

320m

Elevation

The water at Karfiguéla waterfalls, month by month

It roars from August to September.

The fullest months: from August to September. The thinnest: from November to May.

  1. 0.3 m³/sJan
  2. 0.3 m³/sFeb
  3. 0.3 m³/sMar
  4. 0.7 m³/sApr
  5. 1.4 m³/sMay
  6. 2.6 m³/sJun
  7. 4.5 m³/sJul
  8. 6.3 m³/sAug
  9. 5.8 m³/sSep
  10. 3.1 m³/sOct
  11. 1.1 m³/sNov
  12. 0.4 m³/sDec
high water best months to go

From about 0.26 m³/s in the lowest month to 6.3 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from July to September.

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.

Waterfalls in Bukina Faso

Karfiguéla waterfalls is a waterfall in Burkina Faso.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there.

  • Banforanearest town · 12 km in a straight line
  • Parking 480 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
  • Bobo Dioulasso Airport (BOY)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 72 km in a straight line
  • From July to Septemberbest 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.

Seen from the sky.

8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.

Karfiguéla waterfalls 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 Comoé through the falls
300 m325 m350 mKarfiguéla waterfalls-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 66 m in 2.5 km. Here the river runs about 24 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

  • 2viewpoints
  • —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
  • 1campsites
  • —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

  • Banfora12 km in a straight line

Weather

The weather, month by month.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C343738373532302930323434
Night °C172023242423222222222017
Rain & snow (mm)2821641111622392912228580
Wet days0161624273031282120
Sun h/day8.98.47.97.88.17.36.25.26.38.18.68.9

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (320 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Banfora Falls, Burkina Faso
Jurgen · CC BY 2.0
Cascades de Banfora
Carrara Guido - And family · CC BY 2.0
Cascades de Karfiguela 3
Tidjanehema · CC BY-SA 4.0

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
2020—0%138%70%122%75%104%95%122%114%0%—
2021—29%161%100%165%114%107%114%101%128%312%—
2022—14%201%112%109%110%89%65%132%66%20%—
2023—8%216%78%186%139%56%67%61%84%248%—
2024—38%57%70%75%122%118%86%120%170%4%—
2025—14%146%68%134%264%84%46%79%66%232%—

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q954384) · 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.