Japan 
In numbers.
0.20m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jul–Oct
Best months
1,018m
Elevation
The water at Namekawa Great Falls, month by month
It roars in April and from July to November.
The fullest months: April and from July to November. Below −4 °C on average (from January to February): the falls can partly freeze.
- 0.1 m³/sJan
- 0.1 m³/sFeb
- 0.2 m³/sMar
- 0.2 m³/sApr
- 0.1 m³/sMay
- 0.1 m³/sJun
- 0.4 m³/sJul
- 0.3 m³/sAug
- 0.3 m³/sSep
- 0.3 m³/sOct
- 0.2 m³/sNov
- 0.2 m³/sDec
From about 0.09 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.36 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from July to October.
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 in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan
Namekawa Great Falls is a waterfall in Japan.
Getting there.
- Yonezawanearest town · 17 km in a straight line
- Parking 1,940 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Fukushima Airport (FKS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 64 km in a straight lineCar hire at KIJ airport (Niigata)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From July 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 485 m in 3.0 km.
What is around.
- 1viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 2other named waterfalls within 4 km三階滝, 潜滝
- —caves
- —campsites
- 6hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmホテル・バレーブランシェ, 姥湯温泉 桝形屋, 滑川温泉 福島屋 and 3 more
- —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
- Yonezawa17 km in a straight line
- Iizakamachi21 km in a straight line
- Fukushima22 km in a straight line
- Dake-onsen23 km in a straight line
- Ōshio24 km in a straight line
- Date25 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 | -3 | 2 | 9 | 16 | 20 | 23 | 24 | 20 | 13 | 6 | 0 |
| Night °C | -8 | -9 | -6 | -2 | 4 | 9 | 14 | 15 | 11 | 4 | -1 | -6 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 99 | 63 | 83 | 86 | 87 | 116 | 204 | 152 | 142 | 145 | 96 | 114 |
| Wet days | 20 | 16 | 15 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 19 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 16 | 20 |
| Sun h/day | 2.6 | 3.6 | 4.5 | 5.6 | 5.8 | 5.2 | 3.7 | 4.9 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 3.3 | 2.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 20 | 20 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 15 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,018 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 | 111% | 98% | 103% | 173% | 73% | 65% | 222% | 64% | 119% | 57% | 51% | 87% |
| 2021 | 97% | 160% | 103% | 112% | 94% | 79% | 79% | 122% | 76% | 85% | 126% | 138% |
| 2022 | 80% | 114% | 101% | 118% | 97% | 120% | 90% | 131% | 86% | 49% | 96% | 122% |
| 2023 | 59% | 94% | 81% | 87% | 183% | 265% | 67% | 36% | 129% | 61% | 129% | 80% |
| 2024 | 116% | 100% | 164% | 82% | 142% | 81% | 151% | 105% | 163% | 91% | 119% | 74% |
| 2025 | 99% | 117% | 90% | 126% | 228% | 93% | 22% | 143% | 205% | 144% | 104% | 115% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Namekawa Great Falls
Japan
- —Height
- 0.20 m³/sAverage flow
- Jul–OctBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q11565006) · 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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