
In numbers.
Jul–Aug
Oct–Nov
Best months
515m
Elevation
The water at Nanatsu Falls, month by month
It roars from March to April and from July to January.
It carries water fairly evenly through the year.
- 93%Jan
- 73%Feb
- 89%Mar
- 87%Apr
- 69%May
- 60%Jun
- 96%Jul
- 96%Aug
- 87%Sep
- 96%Oct
- 96%Nov
- 100%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from July to August and from October to November.
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.
- Tsuruokanearest town · 20 km in a straight line
- Shonai Airport (SYO)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 30 km in a straight lineCar hire at SYO airport (Shonai)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From July to August and from October to Novemberbest 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 388 m in 3.2 km.
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).
Towns nearby
- Tsuruoka20 km in a straight line
- Mizusawa21 km in a straight line
- Sukekawa22 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 | -1 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 18 | 22 | 25 | 27 | 22 | 16 | 9 | 2 |
| Night °C | -5 | -6 | -3 | 2 | 8 | 13 | 17 | 18 | 14 | 8 | 2 | -2 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 137 | 87 | 96 | 90 | 92 | 114 | 207 | 167 | 138 | 152 | 136 | 165 |
| Wet days | 24 | 19 | 16 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 18 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 19 | 23 |
| Sun h/day | 2.6 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 5.6 | 5.8 | 5.2 | 3.7 | 4.9 | 4.4 | 4.0 | 3.3 | 2.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 25 | 27 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 16 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (515 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 | 95% | 121% | 112% | 167% | 66% | 69% | 228% | 83% | 152% | 62% | 76% | 101% |
| 2021 | 107% | 159% | 92% | 119% | 107% | 68% | 81% | 100% | 79% | 87% | 148% | 143% |
| 2022 | 99% | 115% | 120% | 107% | 89% | 136% | 84% | 159% | 88% | 64% | 92% | 148% |
| 2023 | 78% | 99% | 77% | 109% | 207% | 242% | 84% | 26% | 129% | 85% | 139% | 99% |
| 2024 | 119% | 88% | 147% | 81% | 134% | 86% | 219% | 88% | 191% | 88% | 120% | 96% |
| 2025 | 103% | 123% | 84% | 149% | 216% | 97% | 11% | 164% | 241% | 151% | 115% | 117% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q11353357) · 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.



