Uganda 
In numbers.
3,567m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Sep–Dec
Best months
995m
Elevation
The water at Karuma Falls, month by month
It roars from June to December.
The fullest months: from June to December. The thinnest: from February to March.
- 3,142 m³/sJan
- 2,550 m³/sFeb
- 2,523 m³/sMar
- 3,092 m³/sApr
- 3,686 m³/sMay
- 3,884 m³/sJun
- 3,836 m³/sJul
- 3,822 m³/sAug
- 3,994 m³/sSep
- 4,373 m³/sOct
- 4,343 m³/sNov
- 3,820 m³/sDec
From about 2,523 m³/s in the lowest month to 4,373 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from September to December.
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 Uganda
Karuma Falls is a waterfall in Uganda.
Getting there.
- Oyamnearest town · 17 km in a straight line
- Parking 1,820 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Gulu Airport (ULU)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 63 km in a straight lineCar hire in KampalaDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From September to Decemberbest 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.
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 20 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
- 3car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 2other named waterfalls within 4 kmKaruma Falls
- —caves
- 1campsites
- 2hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmKaruma Traveller's Hotel, Golden State Guesthouse
- 3restaurants 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
- Oyam17 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 | 34 | 35 | 33 | 30 | 28 | 28 | 29 | 28 | 29 | 29 | 30 | 32 |
| Night °C | 20 | 21 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 19 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 25 | 29 | 72 | 112 | 110 | 75 | 74 | 104 | 118 | 123 | 82 | 46 |
| Wet days | 6 | 6 | 14 | 20 | 24 | 21 | 21 | 25 | 22 | 24 | 17 | 9 |
| Sun h/day | 9.1 | 8.8 | 7.9 | 7.8 | 8.2 | 7.5 | 6.9 | 7.4 | 8.3 | 8.2 | 8.3 | 9.0 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (995 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 | 167% | 114% | 338% | 138% | 93% | 117% | 150% | 108% | 189% | 125% | 70% | 98% |
| 2021 | 306% | 67% | 22% | 105% | 83% | 36% | 18% | 26% | 72% | 82% | 94% | 65% |
| 2022 | 130% | 47% | 81% | 100% | 83% | 74% | 84% | 137% | 157% | 87% | 63% | 81% |
| 2023 | 59% | 55% | 220% | 121% | 79% | 162% | 81% | 59% | 110% | 152% | 154% | 72% |
| 2024 | 227% | 184% | 76% | 96% | 73% | 162% | 140% | 136% | 108% | 144% | 123% | 32% |
| 2025 | 75% | 43% | 98% | 45% | 105% | 66% | 132% | 140% | 52% | 109% | 62% | 66% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Karuma Falls
Uganda
- —Height
- 3,567 m³/sAverage flow
- Sep–DecBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q1734676) · 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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