Uganda 
In numbers.
1,736m³/s
Average flow
estimate
May–Jun
Dec–Jan
Best months
1,117m
Elevation
The water at Owen Falls, month by month
It roars from April to June and from November to January.
The fullest months: from April to June and from November to January.
- 2,348 m³/sJan
- 1,712 m³/sFeb
- 1,673 m³/sMar
- 2,442 m³/sApr
- 2,970 m³/sMay
- 2,722 m³/sJun
- 2,000 m³/sJul
- 1,275 m³/sAug
- 1,151 m³/sSep
- 1,807 m³/sOct
- 2,592 m³/sNov
- 2,759 m³/sDec
From about 1,151 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,970 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to June and from December to January.
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.
- Njerunearest town · 0.9 km in a straight line
- Parking 1,640 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Entebbe International Airport (EBB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 94 km in a straight lineCar hire in KampalaDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to June and from December to Januarybest 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 20 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 22 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpointsRiver View stp
- —waymarked walking routes
- 4car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 1toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- 2bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 5campsitesSpeke Camp Site, BP Training Center and Campsite Buwenda, Nile River Camp and 2 more
- 80hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmExplorers Backpackers, The mansion Hotel, Adrift Base Camp and 77 more
- 45restaurants 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
- Njeru0.9 km in a straight line
- Jinja1.9 km in a straight line
- Bugembe7.3 km in a straight line
- Kakira13 km in a straight line
- Magamaga20 km in a straight line
- Buwenge23 km in a straight line
- Buikwe23 km in a straight line
- Kitamilo25 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 | 29 | 30 | 28 | 26 | 25 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 27 | 26 | 26 | 28 |
| Night °C | 19 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 19 | 19 | 18 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 19 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 76 | 72 | 162 | 216 | 162 | 67 | 59 | 89 | 119 | 166 | 183 | 130 |
| Wet days | 14 | 13 | 23 | 27 | 28 | 21 | 19 | 24 | 25 | 27 | 24 | 18 |
| Sun h/day | 8.7 | 8.8 | 8.3 | 7.9 | 7.9 | 7.3 | 7.1 | 7.4 | 8.1 | 7.9 | 8.0 | 8.2 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,117 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 | 172% | 229% | 194% | 82% | 124% | 104% | 69% | 89% | 106% | 97% | 185% | 138% |
| 2021 | 229% | 72% | 66% | 105% | 62% | 35% | 22% | 28% | 81% | 72% | 102% | 77% |
| 2022 | 89% | 48% | 184% | 72% | 95% | 97% | 62% | 88% | 104% | 123% | 144% | 151% |
| 2023 | 46% | 63% | 188% | 133% | 62% | 318% | 55% | 63% | 274% | 160% | 206% | 120% |
| 2024 | 150% | 137% | 106% | 91% | 54% | 136% | 145% | 67% | 130% | 115% | 110% | 75% |
| 2025 | 104% | 143% | 155% | 64% | 141% | 118% | 164% | 95% | 51% | 96% | 89% | 58% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Owen Falls
Uganda
- —Height
- 1,736 m³/sAverage flow
- May–Jun, Dec–JanBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q2967735) · 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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