Uganda 
In numbers.
43m
Height
300m³/s
Average flow
Sep–Dec
Best months
127MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Murchison Falls, month by month
It roars from September to December.
The fullest months: from September to December. The thinnest: from February to March.
- 289 m³/sJan
- 242 m³/sFeb
- 233 m³/sMar
- 263 m³/sApr
- 296 m³/sMay
- 313 m³/sJun
- 318 m³/sJul
- 327 m³/sAug
- 348 m³/sSep
- 380 m³/sOct
- 379 m³/sNov
- 341 m³/sDec
From about 233 m³/s in the lowest month to 380 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from September to December.
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.
Waterfall on the Nile in Uganda
Murchison Falls is a waterfall in Uganda. The water falls 43 m over a front 7 m wide. It lies within Murchison Falls National Park.
Getting there.
- Parking 190 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Gulu Airport (ULU)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 88 km in a straight lineCar hire in KampalaDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From September to Decemberbest 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 from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
127 MW
About 300 m³/s falling 43 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 42 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 31,600 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 72 m in 3.5 km. Here the river runs about 68 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 6viewpointsTop of the Falls, Baker's Point and 4 more
- —waymarked walking routes
- 4car parks
- —swimming spots
- 2picnic sites
- —toilets
- 1information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 kmUhuru Falls
- —caves
- 1campsitesUWA Campsite
- —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 | 36 | 38 | 37 | 33 | 31 | 31 | 31 | 30 | 31 | 31 | 32 | 34 |
| Night °C | 22 | 23 | 23 | 22 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 20 | 24 | 79 | 120 | 118 | 92 | 98 | 131 | 150 | 163 | 109 | 53 |
| Wet days | 5 | 6 | 13 | 20 | 23 | 20 | 21 | 24 | 22 | 24 | 18 | 8 |
| Sun h/day | 9.0 | 8.6 | 7.8 | 7.9 | 8.2 | 7.4 | 6.6 | 6.8 | 7.6 | 7.5 | 7.8 | 8.8 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (655 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 | 107% | 94% | 298% | 150% | 107% | 117% | 170% | 105% | 165% | 135% | 82% | 299% |
| 2021 | 404% | 14% | 19% | 94% | 126% | 44% | 30% | 30% | 78% | 83% | 126% | 230% |
| 2022 | 205% | 36% | 96% | 76% | 86% | 73% | 65% | 101% | 214% | 71% | 98% | 99% |
| 2023 | 33% | 53% | 230% | 118% | 117% | 112% | 79% | 64% | 96% | 130% | 265% | 43% |
| 2024 | 67% | 175% | 68% | 71% | 70% | 187% | 158% | 224% | 116% | 116% | 99% | 84% |
| 2025 | 68% | 30% | 98% | 58% | 51% | 55% | 77% | 76% | 32% | 64% | 116% | 32% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Murchison Falls
Uganda
- 43 mHeight
- 300 m³/sAverage flow
- Sep–DecBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q495475) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| 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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