
In numbers.
0.23m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr–May
Nov–Dec
Best months
2,110m
Elevation
The water at Ndaba Rock, month by month
It roars from March to May and from November to December.
The fullest months: from March to May and from November to December. The thinnest: from July to August.
- 0.3 m³/sJan
- 0.3 m³/sFeb
- 0.4 m³/sMar
- 0.4 m³/sApr
- 0.3 m³/sMay
- 0.2 m³/sJun
- 0.1 m³/sJul
- 0.1 m³/sAug
- 0.2 m³/sSep
- 0.3 m³/sOct
- 0.4 m³/sNov
- 0.4 m³/sDec
From about 0.10 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.42 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to May and from November 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.
Ndaba rock historically place of Rwanda
Ndaba Rock is a waterfall on the Ndaba River, in Rwanda.
Getting there.
- Mabanzanearest town · 6.7 km in a straight line
- Goma International Airport (GOM)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 50 km in a straight lineCar hire in KigaliDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April to May and from November 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.
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 247 m in 3.0 km. Here the river runs about 130 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpoints
- —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
- Mabanza6.7 km in a straight line
- Gitesi10 km in a straight line
- Kibuye14 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 | 21 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 21 |
| Night °C | 15 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 14 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 126 | 132 | 191 | 191 | 141 | 61 | 38 | 80 | 118 | 164 | 196 | 149 |
| Wet days | 20 | 18 | 24 | 25 | 22 | 9 | 6 | 11 | 17 | 22 | 26 | 23 |
| Sun h/day | 5.4 | 5.6 | 5.3 | 5.2 | 5.7 | 6.2 | 6.6 | 5.9 | 5.8 | 5.2 | 4.9 | 5.2 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (2,110 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 | 114% | 112% | 210% | 107% | 54% | 262% | 141% | 27% | 52% | 95% | 277% | 87% |
| 2021 | 148% | 161% | 41% | 100% | 64% | 39% | 22% | 88% | 77% | 44% | 84% | 116% |
| 2022 | 121% | 194% | 80% | 95% | 71% | 19% | 74% | 142% | 121% | 28% | 80% | 62% |
| 2023 | 23% | 30% | 76% | 97% | 101% | 39% | 10% | 3% | 46% | 41% | 97% | 82% |
| 2024 | 150% | 58% | 71% | 86% | 44% | 20% | 33% | 21% | 40% | 151% | 113% | 114% |
| 2025 | 37% | 44% | 42% | 68% | 60% | 72% | 9% | 191% | 22% | 53% | 34% | 94% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q107388828) · 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.
The family
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Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.






