
In numbers.
Apr
Aug–Oct
Best months
420m
Elevation
The water at Moss Force, month by month
It roars from October to February.
The fullest months: from October to February.
- 96%Jan
- 83%Feb
- 71%Mar
- 55%Apr
- 47%May
- 47%Jun
- 55%Jul
- 67%Aug
- 64%Sep
- 80%Oct
- 92%Nov
- 100%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: April and from August to October.
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 the Lake District National Park, Cumbria, England, UK
Moss Force is a waterfall in United Kingdom.
Getting there.
- Keswicknearest town · 9.6 km in a straight line
- Parking 270 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Isle of Man Airport (IOM)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 103 km in a straight lineCar hire at BLK airport (Blackpool)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- April and from August to Octoberbest 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 238 m in 2.3 km.
What is around.
- 1viewpoints
- 1waymarked walking routesButtermere to Rannerdale Walk, North Lakes Outdoors
- 15car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 1toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 7campsitesLow Manesty Caravan Park, Seatoller Farm, Hollows Farm Campsite and 4 more
- 42hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmCrummockwater Cottages, Manesty Holiday Cottages, Birkrigg Farm and 39 more
- 2restaurants 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
- Keswick9.6 km in a straight line
- Cockermouth15 km in a straight line
- Frizington16 km in a straight line
- Cleator Moor17 km in a straight line
- Egremont19 km in a straight line
- Distington20 km in a straight line
- Whitehaven22 km in a straight line
- Workington22 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 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 10 | 7 | 5 |
| Night °C | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 1 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 125 | 100 | 87 | 67 | 80 | 96 | 114 | 128 | 100 | 130 | 129 | 135 |
| Wet days | 19 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 17 | 19 | 20 | 17 | 19 | 20 | 19 |
| Sun h/day | 0.9 | 2.3 | 3.8 | 5.8 | 6.7 | 5.8 | 5.8 | 5.0 | 4.2 | 2.4 | 1.3 | 0.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 7 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (420 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 | 103% | 256% | 101% | 29% | 39% | 142% | 137% | 126% | 82% | 128% | 115% | 131% |
| 2021 | 129% | 159% | 134% | 22% | 159% | 36% | 64% | 67% | 86% | 179% | 61% | 100% |
| 2022 | 48% | 186% | 56% | 80% | 102% | 80% | 63% | 50% | 102% | 118% | 119% | 78% |
| 2023 | 111% | 45% | 169% | 117% | 54% | 67% | 167% | 80% | 154% | 81% | 113% | 152% |
| 2024 | 141% | 125% | 135% | 215% | 134% | 73% | 81% | 117% | 72% | 83% | 51% | 107% |
| 2025 | 71% | 72% | 45% | 45% | 71% | 125% | 91% | 50% | 189% | 83% | 154% | 125% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q1949432) · 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
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.



