Finland 
In numbers.
17m
Height
1.5m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jun–Aug
Best months
246kW
Water power
estimate
The water at Pitsusköngäs, month by month
It roars from May to July.
The fullest months: from May to July, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from October to April. Below −4 °C on average (from November to April): the falls can partly freeze.
- 0.3 m³/sJan
- 0.2 m³/sFeb
- 0.4 m³/sMar
- 1.3 m³/sApr
- 5.7 m³/sMay
- 7.1 m³/sJun
- 5.8 m³/sJul
- 4.2 m³/sAug
- 2.8 m³/sSep
- 1.7 m³/sOct
- 1.0 m³/sNov
- 0.5 m³/sDec
From about 0.21 m³/s in the lowest month to 7.1 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to August.
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.
Waterfall in Enontekiö, Finland
Pitsusköngäs is a waterfall in Finland. The water falls 17 m.
Getting there.
- Sørkjosen Airport (SOJ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 66 km in a straight lineCar hire at ALF airport (Alta)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From June 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.
246 kW
About 1.5 m³/s falling 17 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 62 homes, if it were all turned into electricity
Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.
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 101 m in 3.2 km. Here the river runs about 38 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpoints
- 3waymarked walking routesEuropean Long distance path E1 - Finland, Nordkalottruta Etapp 8: Pihtsusjärvi - Meekonjärvi
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- —campsites
- —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).
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | -10 | -10 | -6 | -2 | 3 | 10 | 14 | 12 | 6 | -1 | -6 | -8 |
| Night °C | -16 | -16 | -13 | -8 | -2 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 1 | -5 | -11 | -13 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 45 | 44 | 44 | 46 | 74 | 111 | 137 | 111 | 79 | 62 | 49 | 53 |
| Wet days | 16 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 18 | 21 | 23 | 22 | 19 | 18 | 16 | 17 |
| Sun h/day | 0.5 | 1.0 | 4.1 | 7.5 | 8.2 | 7.3 | 6.7 | 5.3 | 3.3 | 1.2 | 0.5 | — |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 58 | 71 | 80 | 78 | 35 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 17 | 28 | 44 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (709 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 | 170% | 138% | 147% | 108% | 72% | 46% | 145% | 95% | 108% | 107% | 103% | 96% |
| 2021 | 85% | 110% | 106% | 139% | 83% | 127% | 59% | 82% | 123% | 158% | 98% | 97% |
| 2022 | 160% | 95% | 98% | 154% | 114% | 106% | 139% | 126% | 100% | 117% | 59% | 95% |
| 2023 | 103% | 132% | 103% | 113% | 117% | 53% | 58% | 113% | 150% | 92% | 89% | 104% |
| 2024 | 105% | 93% | 107% | 119% | 71% | 111% | 75% | 107% | 106% | 177% | 184% | 130% |
| 2025 | 118% | 78% | 152% | 177% | 67% | 120% | 94% | 135% | 114% | 145% | 104% | 150% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Pitsusköngäs
Finland
- 17 mHeight
- 1.5 m³/sAverage flow
- Jun–AugBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q2326924) · 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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