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Norway Norway Waterfall

Kjosfossen

A 225 m drop.

When to go

Kjosfossen Falls
positivesustainability · CC BY 2.0

In numbers.

225m

Height

9.3m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Jun–Jul
Sep

Best months

21MW

Water power

estimate

The water at Kjosfossen, month by month

It roars from May to June.

The fullest months: from May to June, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from February to March. Below −4 °C on average (from December to February): the falls can partly freeze.

  1. 8.4 m³/sJan
  2. 2.1 m³/sFeb
  3. 2.9 m³/sMar
  4. 16 m³/sApr
  5. 37 m³/sMay
  6. 32 m³/sJun
  7. 21 m³/sJul
  8. 15 m³/sAug
  9. 16 m³/sSep
  10. 15 m³/sOct
  11. 15 m³/sNov
  12. 14 m³/sDec
high water best months to go may freeze

From about 2.1 m³/s in the lowest month to 37 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to July and 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.

Waterfall in Aurland, Norway

Kjosfossen is a waterfall in Norway. The water falls 225 m.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there.

  • Aurlandsvangennearest town · 18 km in a straight line
  • Parking 830 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
  • Bergen Airport, Flesland (BGO)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 116 km in a straight lineCar hire at BGO airport (Bergen)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • From June to July and 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.

How big is it?

How big it really is.

225 mKjosfossen93 mStatue ofLiberty96 mBig Ben139 mGreat Pyramid330 mEiffel Tower

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

21 MW

About 9.3 m³/s falling 225 m: the power of the water as it drops.

  • as much as 6.9 large wind turbines
  • enough to power about 5,100 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.

Kjosfossen 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 Flåmselvi through the falls
700 m750 mKjosfossen0← 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 90 m in 0.3 km. Here the river runs about 149 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

  • 1viewpointsKjosfossen
  • 4waymarked walking routesMyrdal - Upsete and 3 more
  • 1car parks
  • —swimming spots
  • 1picnic sites
  • 2toilets
  • —information boards and visitor centres
  • —bus stops within 1 km
  • 3other named waterfalls within 4 kmKaldaklovfossen, Kårdalsfossen
  • —caves
  • 1campsites
  • 3hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmVatnahalsen Høyfjellshotell, Rallerosa, Myrdal Fjellstove
  • 1restaurants 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

  • Aurlandsvangen18 km in a straight line
  • Ulvik23 km in a straight line

Weather

The weather, month by month.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C-4-3-1281416151150-3
Night °C-8-9-8-3169850-5-7
Rain & snow (mm)18513113199105130154152169160171193
Wet days221920171720222220202021
Sun h/day0.31.64.27.37.86.66.45.33.62.00.60.4
Snow on the ground (cm)93125144112364004132754

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (748 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

2023-07-05-Kjosfossen-6840
Superbass · CC BY-SA 4.0
A huldra at Kjosfossen, Norway
Rosser1954 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Am Kjosfossen
JøMa · 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
2020177%223%126%134%101%68%132%84%125%84%150%53%
202145%69%116%94%54%102%79%45%77%157%109%69%
2022152%213%47%57%139%112%103%102%52%130%79%61%
2023103%147%96%64%98%58%140%140%115%105%46%101%
202494%170%80%106%74%99%104%148%71%138%82%149%
202569%54%162%77%87%126%91%128%86%94%92%82%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Kjosfossen

Norway

  • 225 mHeight
  • 9.3 m³/sAverage flow
  • Jun–Jul, SepBest months

Kjelfossen

Norway

  • 755 mHeight
  • —Average flow
  • Jun–Jul, SepBest months

See the guide

Myrdalsfossen

Norway

  • —Height
  • 9.3 m³/sAverage flow
  • Jun–Jul, SepBest months

See the guide

Rjoandefossen

Norway

  • —Height
  • 12 m³/sAverage flow
  • May–JulBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q203406) · 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, canyons, caves or dark skies?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

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