United Kingdom 
In numbers.
2.7m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr
Aug–Oct
Best months
295m
Elevation
The water at Kisdon Force, month by month
It roars from July to April.
It carries water fairly evenly through the year.
- 3.5 m³/sJan
- 2.7 m³/sFeb
- 2.4 m³/sMar
- 2.2 m³/sApr
- 1.1 m³/sMay
- 1.8 m³/sJun
- 2.2 m³/sJul
- 3.6 m³/sAug
- 2.3 m³/sSep
- 3.6 m³/sOct
- 4.5 m³/sNov
- 4.2 m³/sDec
From about 1.1 m³/s in the lowest month to 4.5 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: April and from August to October.
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.
Series of waterfalls on the River Swale in Swaledale, North Yorkshire, England, UK
Kisdon Force is a waterfall in United Kingdom.
Getting there.
- Kirkby Stephennearest town · 14 km in a straight line
- Parking 580 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Teesside International Airport (MME)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 48 km in a straight lineCar hire at LBA airport (Leeds, West Yorkshire)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- April and from August to Octoberbest 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 68 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 100 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpoints
- 3waymarked walking routesPennine Way (Hawes to Tan Hill), Coast to Coast Walk (Shap to Richmond), Herriot Way
- 2car parks
- —swimming spots
- 1picnic sites
- 2toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- 1bus stops within 1 km
- 16other named waterfalls within 4 kmWain Wath Force, Rainby Force, Catrake Force and 13 more
- 1caves
- 5campsitesHoggarths campsite, Rukin's Park Lodge Campsite, Park House Camping & Keld Bunkhouse and 2 more
- 9hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmGreystones, Buttercup Cottage, Pry House and 6 more
- 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
- Kirkby Stephen14 km in a straight line
- Bowes16 km in a straight line
- Lartington20 km in a straight line
- Brignall21 km in a straight line
- Barningham21 km in a straight line
- Startforth21 km in a straight line
- Barnard Castle22 km in a straight line
- Rokeby23 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 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 15 | 12 | 7 | 5 |
| Night °C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 70 | 59 | 58 | 55 | 62 | 86 | 90 | 100 | 69 | 86 | 81 | 76 |
| Wet days | 17 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 17 |
| Sun h/day | 1.3 | 2.3 | 3.7 | 5.4 | 6.4 | 5.5 | 5.7 | 4.8 | 4.4 | 2.5 | 1.5 | 1.1 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 10 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (295 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 | 81% | 192% | 69% | 25% | 29% | 117% | 101% | 118% | 81% | 130% | 78% | 154% |
| 2021 | 190% | 167% | 82% | 28% | 186% | 30% | 94% | 57% | 61% | 134% | 66% | 116% |
| 2022 | 41% | 155% | 81% | 59% | 105% | 54% | 59% | 37% | 118% | 110% | 115% | 95% |
| 2023 | 78% | 43% | 160% | 128% | 63% | 65% | 169% | 97% | 139% | 120% | 141% | 187% |
| 2024 | 165% | 135% | 143% | 173% | 158% | 71% | 86% | 55% | 138% | 94% | 48% | 104% |
| 2025 | 106% | 65% | 50% | 24% | 52% | 74% | 93% | 33% | 189% | 81% | 150% | 136% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Kisdon Force
United Kingdom
- —Height
- 2.7 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr, Aug–OctBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q4584456) · 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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