DR Congo / Zambia 
In numbers.
Dec–Mar
Best months
934m
Elevation
The water at Mambilima Falls, month by month
It roars from December to February.
The fullest months: from December to February. The thinnest: from May to October.
- 100%Jan
- 81%Feb
- 67%Mar
- 34%Apr
- 11%May
- 2%Jun
- 0%Jul
- 0%Aug
- 0%Sep
- 2%Oct
- 30%Nov
- 84%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from December to March.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Getting there.
- Mwensenearest town · 18 km in a straight line
- Lubumbashi International Airport (FBM)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 170 km in a straight lineCar hire at NLA airport (Ndola)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From December to Marchbest 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 16 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 19 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- —viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 kmchutes Mambilima
- —caves
- —campsites
- —hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
- —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
- Mwense18 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 | 27 | 27 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 32 | 34 | 36 | 32 | 28 |
| Night °C | 20 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 13 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 22 | 21 | 20 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 249 | 176 | 171 | 66 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 31 | 152 | 276 |
| Wet days | 29 | 25 | 27 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 19 | 28 |
| Sun h/day | 5.4 | 6.0 | 6.6 | 8.2 | 9.8 | 10.2 | 10.2 | 9.8 | 9.2 | 8.3 | 6.9 | 5.5 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (934 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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 93% | 173% | 208% | 43% | 23% | — | — | — | — | 89% | 186% | 124% |
| 2021 | 102% | 132% | 113% | 40% | 621% | — | — | — | — | 140% | 178% | 70% |
| 2022 | 163% | 146% | 138% | 121% | 81% | — | — | — | — | 31% | 128% | 166% |
| 2023 | 103% | 121% | 254% | 94% | 11% | — | — | — | — | 216% | 142% | 115% |
| 2024 | 189% | 115% | 139% | 195% | 192% | — | — | — | — | 135% | 75% | 39% |
| 2025 | 103% | 141% | 74% | 123% | 596% | — | — | — | — | 33% | 73% | 107% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Mambilima Falls
DR Congo
- —Height
- —Average flow
- Dec–MarBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q1888142) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| 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.
The family
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