United States 
In numbers.
Dec–Mar
Best months
10m
Elevation
The water at McWay Falls, month by month
It roars from December to March.
The fullest months: from December to March. The thinnest: from May to November.
- 99%Jan
- 100%Feb
- 76%Mar
- 40%Apr
- 14%May
- 3%Jun
- 0%Jul
- 0%Aug
- 0%Sep
- 6%Oct
- 24%Nov
- 86%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.
Waterfall in California
McWay Falls is a coastal waterfall in United States. It lies within Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.
Getting there.
- Parking 310 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Monterey Regional Airport (MRY)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 50 km in a straight lineCar hire at MRY airport (Monterey)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 146 m in 0.8 km.
What is around.
- 4viewpointsJulia Pfieffer Burns Vista Point, Bench and 2 more
- —waymarked walking routes
- 5car parks
- —swimming spots
- 2picnic sites
- 2toilets
- 3information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 10campsitesCold Spring Camp, South Fork Camp, Camp MC and 7 more
- —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).
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 16 | 14 |
| Night °C | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 79 | 78 | 60 | 29 | 13 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 21 | 40 | 94 |
| Wet days | 10 | 10 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
| Sun h/day | 6.1 | 6.8 | 8.3 | 9.8 | 11.5 | 12.9 | 12.2 | 11.3 | 10.3 | 8.8 | 7.0 | 5.6 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (10 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 | 33% | 1% | 120% | 107% | 46% | — | — | — | — | 3% | 28% | 31% |
| 2021 | 151% | 9% | 50% | 6% | 2% | — | — | — | — | 239% | 21% | 110% |
| 2022 | 2% | 2% | 44% | 33% | 2% | — | — | — | — | 6% | 55% | 159% |
| 2023 | 182% | 70% | 189% | 5% | 156% | — | — | — | — | 20% | 66% | 69% |
| 2024 | 125% | 146% | 84% | 91% | 73% | — | — | — | — | 6% | 113% | 33% |
| 2025 | 5% | 76% | 99% | 38% | 17% | — | — | — | — | 139% | 222% | 60% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
McWay Falls
United States
- —Height
- —Average flow
- Dec–MarBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q6802765) · 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.
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