Sweden 
In numbers.
0.72m³/s
Average flow
estimate
May–Jun
Aug–Sep
Best months
52m
Elevation
The water at Norrforsen, month by month
It roars from April to May and from September to October.
The fullest months: from April to May and from September to October, with the snowmelt. Below −4 °C on average (from December to February): the falls can partly freeze.
- 0.8 m³/sJan
- 0.2 m³/sFeb
- 0.7 m³/sMar
- 1.8 m³/sApr
- 1.9 m³/sMay
- 1.1 m³/sJun
- 1.0 m³/sJul
- 1.3 m³/sAug
- 1.5 m³/sSep
- 1.3 m³/sOct
- 1.0 m³/sNov
- 1.2 m³/sDec
From about 0.25 m³/s in the lowest month to 1.9 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to June and from August to September.
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.
Getting there.
- Vännäsbynearest town · 11 km in a straight line
- Parking 370 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Umeå Airport (UME)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 16 km in a straight lineCar hire in UmeaDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to June and from August to Septemberbest 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 45 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 35 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 2viewpointsNorrfors Laxtrappa
- 1waymarked walking routesBrännland runt
- 4car parks
- 1swimming spotsSörfors badplats
- 8picnic sites
- 2toilets
- 2information boards and visitor centres
- 6bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 1campsites
- —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
- Vännäsby11 km in a straight line
- Röbäck11 km in a straight line
- Umeå13 km in a straight line
- Vännäs14 km in a straight line
- Ersmark14 km in a straight line
- Täfteå23 km in a straight line
- Obbola24 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 | -5 | -4 | -1 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 20 | 18 | 13 | 6 | 1 | -2 |
| Night °C | -10 | -10 | -7 | -2 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 11 | 7 | 2 | -3 | -7 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 60 | 46 | 43 | 46 | 61 | 63 | 92 | 101 | 86 | 78 | 69 | 71 |
| Wet days | 13 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 16 | 15 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 14 |
| Sun h/day | 0.3 | 2.4 | 5.5 | 7.5 | 8.9 | 9.7 | 8.7 | 7.0 | 4.6 | 2.1 | 0.5 | 0.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 30 | 40 | 36 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 16 | 20 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (52 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 | 144% | 127% | 93% | 56% | 73% | 71% | 160% | 39% | 154% | 170% | 183% | 123% |
| 2021 | 170% | 81% | 97% | 111% | 77% | 159% | 54% | 140% | 112% | 207% | 73% | 45% |
| 2022 | 60% | 126% | 61% | 114% | 84% | 97% | 89% | 74% | 91% | 81% | 51% | 109% |
| 2023 | 142% | 69% | 121% | 103% | 41% | 23% | 107% | 125% | 89% | 70% | 114% | 54% |
| 2024 | 78% | 110% | 157% | 119% | 17% | 155% | 147% | 89% | 102% | 150% | 87% | 103% |
| 2025 | 146% | 61% | 54% | 42% | 97% | 140% | 55% | 67% | 133% | 153% | 84% | 118% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Norrforsen
Sweden
- —Height
- 0.72 m³/sAverage flow
- May–Jun, Aug–SepBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q5488462) · 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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