Norway 
In numbers.
15m
Height
OpenStreetMap
56m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jun–Jul
Best months
8.3MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Målselvfossen, 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 March): the falls can partly freeze.
- 22 m³/sJan
- 3.7 m³/sFeb
- 14 m³/sMar
- 52 m³/sApr
- 236 m³/sMay
- 300 m³/sJun
- 188 m³/sJul
- 103 m³/sAug
- 90 m³/sSep
- 75 m³/sOct
- 54 m³/sNov
- 43 m³/sDec
From about 3.7 m³/s in the lowest month to 300 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to July.
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.
Målselvfossen is a waterfall in Norway. The water falls 15 m.
Getting there.
- Moennearest town · 11 km in a straight line
- Parking 220 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Bardufoss Airport (BDU)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 5 km in a straight lineCar hire at TOS airport (Tromsø)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From June to Julybest 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 as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
8.3 MW
About 56 m³/s falling 15 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 2.8 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 2,100 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.
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 22 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 45 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 2viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 2car parks
- —swimming spots
- 2picnic sites
- —toilets
- 1information boards and visitor centres
- 3bus stops within 1 km
- 3other named waterfalls within 4 kmSagbekkfossen, Storfossen, Bardufossen - Beardogorži
- —caves
- 2campsitesMålselvfossen Feriesenter Nedre, Målselv Fjellandsby
- 12hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmBardufoss hotell and 11 more
- —restaurants 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
- Moen11 km in a straight line
- Setermoen23 km in a straight line
- Sørreisa23 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 | -4 | -1 | 3 | 8 | 13 | 18 | 16 | 11 | 4 | 0 | -2 |
| Night °C | -10 | -10 | -7 | -3 | 2 | 8 | 11 | 10 | 6 | 0 | -5 | -7 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 102 | 104 | 113 | 87 | 90 | 112 | 129 | 119 | 127 | 114 | 104 | 117 |
| Wet days | 18 | 17 | 20 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 20 |
| Sun h/day | 0.3 | 0.6 | 3.2 | 6.3 | 7.3 | 7.1 | 6.2 | 4.9 | 3.1 | 1.4 | 0.2 | — |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 70 | 91 | 108 | 106 | 54 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 15 | 30 | 50 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (6 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 | 157% | 124% | 150% | 138% | 115% | 37% | 138% | 145% | 134% | 64% | 124% | 42% |
| 2021 | 47% | 114% | 137% | 149% | 58% | 113% | 123% | 96% | 96% | 95% | 86% | 87% |
| 2022 | 205% | 69% | 112% | 123% | 157% | 78% | 182% | 161% | 51% | 127% | 46% | 65% |
| 2023 | 95% | 162% | 100% | 128% | 172% | 71% | 39% | 76% | 138% | 90% | 41% | 63% |
| 2024 | 152% | 73% | 60% | 70% | 99% | 88% | 58% | 110% | 70% | 146% | 219% | 160% |
| 2025 | 160% | 103% | 160% | 175% | 77% | 109% | 79% | 150% | 85% | 103% | 123% | 128% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Målselvfossen
Norway
- 15 mHeight
- 56 m³/sAverage flow
- Jun–JulBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q3869219) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| 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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