Brazil 
In numbers.
80m
Height
May–Aug
Best months
162m
Elevation
The water at Paulo Afonso Falls, month by month
It roars from May to July.
The fullest months: from May to July. The thinnest: from October to December.
- 28%Jan
- 33%Feb
- 48%Mar
- 54%Apr
- 80%May
- 93%Jun
- 100%Jul
- 64%Aug
- 31%Sep
- 14%Oct
- 6%Nov
- 11%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to August.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfalls on the São Francisco River in Alagoas and Bahia, Brazil
Paulo Afonso Falls is a waterfall in Brazil. The water falls 80 m.
Getting there.
- Paulo Afonsonearest town · 2.8 km in a straight line
- Parking 2,340 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Paulo Afonso Airport (PAV)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 6 km in a straight lineCar hire at AJU airport (Aracaju)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to Augustbest 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.
Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
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 75 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 26 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 4viewpointsMirante Canion, Gruta Furna do Morcego, Cachoeira Paulo Afonso and 1 more
- —waymarked walking routes
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- —campsites
- 17hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmSan Marino I, San Marino II, Hotel Portal da Ilha and 14 more
- 2restaurants 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
- Paulo Afonso2.8 km in a straight line
- Glória8.6 km in a straight line
- Delmiro Gouveia22 km in a straight line
- Jatobá24 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 | 36 | 35 | 35 | 34 | 32 | 30 | 29 | 30 | 33 | 35 | 37 | 36 |
| Night °C | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 21 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 22 | 22 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 54 | 48 | 66 | 63 | 85 | 82 | 83 | 47 | 28 | 23 | 15 | 32 |
| Wet days | 7 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 15 | 17 | 18 | 12 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Sun h/day | 8.3 | 7.8 | 7.9 | 7.6 | 6.8 | 6.4 | 6.6 | 7.5 | 8.6 | 8.9 | 9.3 | 8.9 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (162 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 | 121% | 176% | 238% | 172% | 240% | 190% | 149% | 176% | 112% | 88% | 332% | 52% |
| 2021 | 37% | 29% | 21% | 116% | 164% | 76% | 90% | 79% | 91% | 107% | 324% | 237% |
| 2022 | 77% | 47% | 72% | 47% | 159% | 157% | 160% | 183% | 73% | 31% | 474% | 176% |
| 2023 | 62% | 18% | 59% | 61% | 62% | 129% | 61% | 68% | 60% | 8% | 34% | 44% |
| 2024 | 118% | 147% | 36% | 162% | 108% | 82% | 56% | 32% | 8% | 8% | 64% | 9% |
| 2025 | 65% | 49% | 10% | 53% | 81% | 113% | 62% | 95% | 112% | 235% | 298% | 25% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Paulo Afonso Falls
Brazil
- 80 mHeight
- —Average flow
- May–AugBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37879) · 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
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