DR Congo 
In numbers.
5.0m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr
Nov–Jan
Best months
318m
Elevation
The water at Petites Chutes de la Lukaya, month by month
It roars in April and from November to December.
The fullest months: April and from November to December. The thinnest: from June to September.
- 7.6 m³/sJan
- 6.4 m³/sFeb
- 7.1 m³/sMar
- 7.6 m³/sApr
- 6.3 m³/sMay
- 3.0 m³/sJun
- 1.5 m³/sJul
- 1.1 m³/sAug
- 1.6 m³/sSep
- 4.5 m³/sOct
- 8.8 m³/sNov
- 9.8 m³/sDec
From about 1.1 m³/s in the lowest month to 9.8 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: April and from November 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.
Series of small falls on the Lukaya River. They are located south of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Petites Chutes de la Lukaya is a waterfall in DR Congo.
Getting there.
- Kasangulunearest town · 16 km in a straight line
- Parking 270 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Ndjili International Airport (FIH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 23 km in a straight line
- April and from November to Januarybest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
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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 19 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 48 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpointsMa Vallée
- —waymarked walking routes
- 2car parks
- —swimming spots
- 1picnic sites
- 1toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 1campsites
- 7hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmRésidence Eureka, Luxor, H Hôtel and 4 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
- Kasangulu16 km in a straight line
- Masina18 km in a straight line
- Kinshasa18 km in a straight line
- Brazzaville24 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 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 31 | 31 | 30 | 29 | 29 |
| Night °C | 22 | 22 | 23 | 23 | 22 | 20 | 19 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 166 | 165 | 206 | 207 | 149 | 14 | 3 | 13 | 57 | 176 | 278 | 249 |
| Wet days | 26 | 25 | 28 | 27 | 22 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 27 | 29 | 28 |
| Sun h/day | 5.1 | 4.9 | 5.7 | 5.9 | 5.4 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 4.6 | 4.4 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (318 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 | 213% | 183% | 111% | 127% | 144% | 324% | — | 158% | 65% | 124% | 195% | 159% |
| 2021 | 136% | 119% | 100% | 112% | 88% | 100% | — | 198% | 116% | 84% | 77% | 87% |
| 2022 | 168% | 134% | 200% | 112% | 82% | 13% | — | 22% | 56% | 66% | 117% | 73% |
| 2023 | 109% | 94% | 134% | 131% | 93% | 98% | — | 17% | 43% | 71% | 53% | 76% |
| 2024 | 58% | 83% | 76% | 131% | 45% | 60% | — | 15% | 103% | 77% | 85% | 62% |
| 2025 | 92% | 64% | 55% | 156% | 270% | 276% | — | 5% | 34% | 90% | 79% | 72% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Petites Chutes de la Lukaya
DR Congo
- —Height
- 5.0 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr, Nov–JanBest months
Loufoulakari waterfalls
Republic of the Congo
- —Height
- —Average flow
- Apr, Nov–JanBest months
Livingstone Falls
Republic of the Congo
- —Height
- 42,000 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr, Nov–JanBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q7178420) · 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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