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Nervión Waterfall

A 222 m drop.

When to go

Salto del Nervion 0001
Dieglop · CC BY-SA 4.0

In numbers.

222m

Height

OpenStreetMap

0.83m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Mar–May
Nov

Best months

1.8MW

Water power

estimate

The water at Nervión Waterfall, month by month

It roars from November to March.

The fullest months: from November to March. The thinnest: from July to September.

  1. 1.4 m³/sJan
  2. 1.2 m³/sFeb
  3. 1.2 m³/sMar
  4. 1.0 m³/sApr
  5. 0.8 m³/sMay
  6. 0.5 m³/sJun
  7. 0.3 m³/sJul
  8. 0.2 m³/sAug
  9. 0.3 m³/sSep
  10. 0.7 m³/sOct
  11. 1.3 m³/sNov
  12. 1.4 m³/sDec
high water best months to go

From about 0.23 m³/s in the lowest month to 1.4 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from March to May and November.

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 Spain

Nervión Waterfall is a waterfall in Spain. The water falls 222 m.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there.

  • Urduña / Orduñanearest town · 6.5 km in a straight line
  • Parking 1,610 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
  • Vitoria Airport (VIT)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 22 km in a straight lineCar hire at BIO airport (Bilbao)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • From March to May and 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.

How big is it?

How big it really is.

222 mNerviónWaterfall93 mStatue ofLiberty96 mBig Ben139 mGreat Pyramid330 mEiffel Tower

Height of the drop as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.

1.8 MW

About 0.83 m³/s falling 222 m: the power of the water as it drops.

  • enough to power about 454 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.

Nervión Waterfall seen from above (Sentinel-2) N 2 km

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The Río Nervión through the falls
800 m810 m820 mNervión Waterfall-1.5 km-1 km-0.5 km0← upstreamdownstream →

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.

The valley below the falls
−690 m+690 m

Around the falls the river drops 20 m in 1.8 km. Here the river runs about 15 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

  • 3viewpointsSalto del Nervión, Mirador Esquina Rubén, Mirador del Castillete
  • 12waymarked walking routesCircular de los Miradores, Senda del Hayedo, Circular del Karst and 9 more
  • 2car parks
  • —swimming spots
  • 3picnic sites
  • 1toilets
  • 2information boards and visitor centres
  • —bus stops within 1 km
  • —other named waterfalls within 4 km
  • 5caves
  • 3campsitesUrduñako autokarabanen gunea, Área de autocaravanas Lartundo
  • 3hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmPension Amaia, Refugio del Txolope
  • 1restaurants 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

  • Urduña / Orduña6.5 km in a straight line
  • Berberana6.9 km in a straight line
  • Lezama9.8 km in a straight line
  • Amurrio12 km in a straight line
  • Murgia13 km in a straight line
  • Villanueva de Valdegovía14 km in a straight line
  • Laudio / Llodio23 km in a straight line
  • Elexalde24 km in a straight line

Weather

The weather, month by month.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C781113162022232017118
Night °C0024710121210731
Rain & snow (mm)10487837467563839528012396
Wet days1412121513109910131613
Sun h/day2.43.65.16.27.17.47.87.46.74.72.92.6
Snow on the ground (cm)563000000013

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (795 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Salto del Río Nervión
Hibiscus7 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Salto nervion2023
Centenoyespelta · CC BY-SA 4.0
Salto del Nervión (Alava-Burgos, España) - panoramio
Pintafontes Senapeli… · CC BY-SA 3.0

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.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
202044%35%164%130%132%160%77%159%173%231%36%268%
2021125%103%33%75%84%207%78%54%199%68%171%195%
202270%29%103%126%36%80%27%96%142%38%123%72%
2023162%50%37%54%86%148%71%126%156%96%127%98%
202466%140%94%51%140%141%64%197%262%209%59%118%
202580%53%122%91%116%108%105%125%94%49%118%78%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Nervión Waterfall

Spain

  • 222 mHeight
  • 0.83 m³/sAverage flow
  • Mar–May, NovBest months

Gujuli

Spain

  • 91 mHeight
  • 0.38 m³/sAverage flow
  • Nov–FebBest months

See the guide

Oteoko Errota

Spain

  • —Height
  • 0.37 m³/sAverage flow
  • Jan, Mar–Apr, NovBest months

See the guide

Bisusta waterfall

Spain

  • —Height
  • —Average flow
  • Nov–FebBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q3331650) · CC0
Height of the drop© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
River flow and catchmentHydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0
ClimateNASA POWER, 1991–2020
Relief, river profile, 3D modelCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Paths, viewpoints, parking© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX 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.