
In numbers.
Apr
Aug–Oct
Best months
359m
Elevation
The water at Pistyll y Llyn, month by month
It roars from November to February.
The fullest months: from November to February.
- 94%Jan
- 79%Feb
- 68%Mar
- 53%Apr
- 46%May
- 45%Jun
- 49%Jul
- 54%Aug
- 54%Sep
- 73%Oct
- 89%Nov
- 100%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: April and from August to October.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall on the boundary of Ceredigion and Powys, Wales, UK
Pistyll y Llyn is a waterfall in United Kingdom.
Getting there.
- Machynllethnearest town · 6.6 km in a straight line
- Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LPL)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 111 km in a straight lineCar hire at LPL airport (Liverpool)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- April and from August to Octoberbest 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 229 m in 2.2 km. Here the river runs about 153 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- —viewpoints
- 1waymarked walking routesGlyndŵr's Way
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 4campsitesGwerniago Campsite and 3 more
- 1hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmBlaeneinion
- —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
- Machynlleth6.6 km in a straight line
- Corris13 km in a straight line
- Borth15 km in a straight line
- Bow Street16 km in a straight line
- Tywyn18 km in a straight line
- Aberystwyth21 km in a straight line
- Penparcau21 km in a straight line
- Llanidloes22 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 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 17 | 15 | 12 | 8 | 6 |
| Night °C | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 125 | 99 | 89 | 72 | 84 | 94 | 106 | 109 | 97 | 128 | 135 | 144 |
| Wet days | 19 | 17 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 18 | 19 | 17 | 19 | 20 | 20 |
| Sun h/day | 1.5 | 2.5 | 4.0 | 5.7 | 6.4 | 6.3 | 5.9 | 5.1 | 4.7 | 2.8 | 1.7 | 1.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 6 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (359 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 | 100% | 281% | 127% | 60% | 20% | 146% | 131% | 141% | 82% | 147% | 97% | 154% |
| 2021 | 171% | 128% | 119% | 26% | 228% | 46% | 72% | 77% | 106% | 159% | 55% | 110% |
| 2022 | 42% | 188% | 45% | 65% | 90% | 61% | 55% | 39% | 107% | 107% | 123% | 72% |
| 2023 | 115% | 29% | 176% | 133% | 36% | 56% | 145% | 100% | 138% | 130% | 106% | 148% |
| 2024 | 111% | 168% | 140% | 155% | 104% | 57% | 95% | 85% | 114% | 85% | 60% | 108% |
| 2025 | 111% | 66% | 29% | 97% | 60% | 119% | 70% | 48% | 198% | 93% | 126% | 116% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37281) · 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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Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.



