Laos 
In numbers.
21m
Height
11,000m³/s
Average flow
Aug–Nov
Best months
2.3GW
Water power
estimate
The water at Khone Phapheng Falls, month by month
It roars from August to October.
The fullest months: from August to October. The thinnest: from December to May.
- 2,978 m³/sJan
- 1,762 m³/sFeb
- 1,818 m³/sMar
- 2,279 m³/sApr
- 4,634 m³/sMay
- 9,009 m³/sJun
- 16,595 m³/sJul
- 24,734 m³/sAug
- 27,856 m³/sSep
- 23,836 m³/sOct
- 15,874 m³/sNov
- 7,956 m³/sDec
From about 1,762 m³/s in the lowest month to 27,856 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from August to November.
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 Mekong River in Laos
Khone Phapheng Falls is a waterfall in Laos. The water falls 21 m.
Getting there.
- Ou Svaynearest town · 9.0 km in a straight line
- Parking 390 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Pakse International Airport (PKZ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 132 km in a straight lineCar hire in Ubon RatchathaniDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From August to Novemberbest 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.
2.3 GW
About 11,000 m³/s falling 21 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 755 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 566,500 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.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
What is around.
- 4viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 1toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- 2bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- —campsites
- 7hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmPomelo Restaurant & Guesthouse, Chanhthida, Khonephapheng Hotel and 4 more
- 5restaurants 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
- Ou Svay9.0 km in a straight line
- Muang Không23 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 | 33 | 35 | 37 | 37 | 35 | 33 | 32 | 31 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 32 |
| Night °C | 20 | 21 | 24 | 26 | 25 | 25 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 21 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 3 | 2 | 21 | 42 | 108 | 158 | 236 | 262 | 198 | 81 | 17 | 7 |
| Wet days | 1 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 18 | 20 | 24 | 25 | 23 | 15 | 6 | 2 |
| Sun h/day | 8.7 | 8.7 | 7.4 | 7.2 | 6.4 | 5.3 | 4.5 | 3.9 | 4.7 | 6.4 | 7.6 | 8.1 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (62 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 | — | — | 88% | 148% | 193% | 206% | 161% | 321% | 149% | 386% | 178% | 62% |
| 2021 | — | — | 9% | 431% | 156% | 220% | 349% | 219% | 254% | 368% | 178% | 109% |
| 2022 | — | — | 493% | 191% | 442% | 117% | 265% | 238% | 229% | 78% | 98% | 1,005% |
| 2023 | — | — | 7% | 152% | 204% | 187% | 219% | 118% | 188% | 153% | 133% | 22% |
| 2024 | — | — | 17% | 6% | 160% | 159% | 218% | 104% | 136% | 113% | 62% | 34% |
| 2025 | — | — | 90% | 7% | 113% | 96% | 116% | 128% | 134% | 102% | 295% | 68% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Khone Phapheng Falls
Laos
- 21 mHeight
- 11,000 m³/sAverage flow
- Aug–NovBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q38161) · 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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