
In numbers.
Dec–Mar
Best months
1,190m
Elevation
The water at Mumbuluma 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
- 87%Feb
- 68%Mar
- 32%Apr
- 9%May
- 1%Jun
- 0%Jul
- 0%Aug
- 0%Sep
- 1%Oct
- 27%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.
- Lubumbashi International Airport (FBM)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 151 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 46 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 km
- —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).
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 26 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 25 | 26 | 29 | 32 | 34 | 31 | 26 |
| Night °C | 18 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 19 | 18 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 228 | 178 | 155 | 49 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 23 | 132 | 260 |
| Wet days | 29 | 24 | 26 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 17 | 28 |
| Sun h/day | 5.4 | 6.0 | 6.6 | 8.2 | 9.8 | 10.2 | 10.1 | 9.8 | 9.2 | 8.3 | 6.9 | 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 (1,190 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 | 79% | 184% | 167% | 34% | — | — | — | — | — | 58% | 193% | 146% |
| 2021 | 118% | 126% | 135% | 23% | — | — | — | — | — | 83% | 136% | 101% |
| 2022 | 213% | 131% | 139% | 119% | — | — | — | — | — | 11% | 137% | 124% |
| 2023 | 129% | 102% | 241% | 91% | — | — | — | — | — | 122% | 121% | 118% |
| 2024 | 200% | 87% | 100% | 155% | — | — | — | — | — | 164% | 51% | 58% |
| 2025 | 70% | 116% | 56% | 127% | — | — | — | — | — | 28% | 91% | 86% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q2918962) · 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.



