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United States United States Waterfall UNESCO World Heritage

Lehamite Falls

A 360 m drop.

When to go

Lehamite Falls
Eric Polk · CC BY-SA 3.0

In numbers.

360m

Height

OpenStreetMap

0.15m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Apr–May

Best months

544kW

Water power

estimate

The water at Lehamite Falls, month by month

It roars from March to April.

The fullest months: from March to April, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from July to November.

  1. 0.2 m³/sJan
  2. 0.3 m³/sFeb
  3. 0.3 m³/sMar
  4. 0.3 m³/sApr
  5. 0.2 m³/sMay
  6. 0.1 m³/sJun
  7. 0.1 m³/sJul
  8. 0.0 m³/sAug
  9. 0.0 m³/sSep
  10. 0.1 m³/sOct
  11. 0.1 m³/sNov
  12. 0.2 m³/sDec
high water best months to go

From about 0.02 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.35 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to May.

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

Lehamite Falls is a waterfall in United States. The water falls 360 m. It lies within Yosemite National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there.

  • Yosemite Valleynearest town · 2.4 km in a straight line
  • Parking 1,580 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
  • Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 67 km in a straight lineCar hire at FAT airport (Fresno)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • From April to Maybest 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.

360 mLehamiteFalls96 mBig Ben139 mGreat Pyramid330 mEiffel Tower443 mEmpire StateBuilding

Height of the drop as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.

544 kW

About 0.15 m³/s falling 360 m: the power of the water as it drops.

  • enough to power about 136 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.

Lehamite Falls 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 Lehamite Creek through the falls
1,600 m1,800 m2,000 m2,200 mLehamite Falls-1.5 km-1 km-0.5 km0+0.5 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 645 m in 2.5 km. Here the river runs about 77 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

  • 10viewpointsLower Yosemite Falls Vista Point, Yosemite Falls View, Oh My Gosh Point and 7 more
  • 3waymarked walking routesLower Yosemite Fall Trail, Yosemite Valley Loop Trail, Upper Yosemite Fall Trail
  • 8car parks
  • —swimming spots
  • 2picnic sites
  • 9toilets
  • 14information boards and visitor centres
  • —bus stops within 1 km
  • 8other named waterfalls within 4 kmVernal Fall, Silver Apron, Middle Cascades and 5 more
  • —caves
  • 10campsitesYosemite Valley Backpackers Campground, Little Yosemite Valley Campground, Camp 4 and 7 more
  • 3hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmAhwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Valley Lodge
  • 8restaurants 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

  • Yosemite Valley2.4 km in a straight line

Weather

The weather, month by month.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C3361016232726221693
Night °C-7-7-5-227121172-3-7
Rain & snow (mm)1031019056371114993861118
Wet days11111210844335811
Sun h/day6.56.97.89.511.113.613.112.711.39.57.25.8
Snow on the ground (cm)444540175100141226

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (2,087 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

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
202023%3%89%156%83%129%46%73%10%0%58%48%
2021132%32%60%22%44%137%270%24%24%333%27%200%
20220%5%24%61%7%47%49%303%293%9%133%261%
2023265%146%314%5%102%263%9%420%248%15%63%27%
202490%175%182%70%63%76%201%151%190%36%124%54%
202521%178%121%52%20%66%42%446%424%156%139%117%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Lehamite Falls

United States

  • 360 mHeight
  • 0.15 m³/sAverage flow
  • Apr–MayBest months

Yosemite Falls

United States

  • 739 mHeight
  • —Average flow
  • Mar–MayBest months

See the guide

Horsetail Fall

United States

  • 650 mHeight
  • 8.4 m³/sAverage flow
  • Mar–MayBest months

See the guide

Nevada Fall

United States

  • 181 mHeight
  • 2.6 m³/sAverage flow
  • Mar–MayBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q38236) · CC0
Height of the drop© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
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.