Norway 
In numbers.
18m³/s
Average flow
estimate
May–Aug
Best months
373m
Elevation
The water at Prestfossen, month by month
It roars from May to July.
The fullest months: from May to July, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from November to March. Below −4 °C on average (from December to February): the falls can partly freeze.
- 3.5 m³/sJan
- 3.2 m³/sFeb
- 7.1 m³/sMar
- 23 m³/sApr
- 63 m³/sMay
- 65 m³/sJun
- 52 m³/sJul
- 42 m³/sAug
- 27 m³/sSep
- 18 m³/sOct
- 12 m³/sNov
- 6.0 m³/sDec
From about 3.2 m³/s in the lowest month to 65 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May 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.
Prestfossen is a waterfall in Norway.
Getting there.
- Fossbergomnearest town · 0.1 km in a straight line
- Parking 70 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Molde Airport, Årø (MOL)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 121 km in a straight lineCar hire at MOL airport (Årø)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.
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 28 m in 3.1 km.
What is around.
- 2viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 17car parks
- —swimming spots
- 16picnic sites
- 6toilets
- 22information boards and visitor centres
- 10bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 4campsitesNissegården Hytter og Aktiviteter, Gjeilo Camping, Lom Camping and 1 more
- 7hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmFossheim hotell, Fossberg hotel, Soleggen Fjellstugu and 4 more
- 6restaurants 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
- Fossbergom0.1 km in a straight line
- Bismo17 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 | -2 | -1 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 16 | 19 | 17 | 12 | 6 | 1 | -1 |
| Night °C | -8 | -8 | -7 | -2 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 10 | 6 | 1 | -4 | -7 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 68 | 51 | 52 | 55 | 85 | 121 | 147 | 137 | 86 | 72 | 70 | 66 |
| Wet days | 19 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 22 | 23 | 22 | 20 | 18 | 18 | 19 |
| Sun h/day | 0.8 | 2.5 | 5.3 | 8.6 | 9.1 | 7.5 | 7.0 | 5.9 | 4.2 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 76 | 91 | 99 | 84 | 30 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 18 | 32 | 54 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (373 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 | 111% | 143% | 110% | 115% | 72% | 107% | 83% | 99% | 131% | 117% | 129% | 87% |
| 2021 | 64% | 53% | 85% | 107% | 87% | 104% | 94% | 112% | 126% | 160% | 93% | 86% |
| 2022 | 137% | 160% | 61% | 74% | 101% | 161% | 92% | 84% | 116% | 106% | 89% | 65% |
| 2023 | 101% | 129% | 127% | 135% | 69% | 75% | 134% | 254% | 133% | 99% | 79% | 107% |
| 2024 | 85% | 129% | 121% | 88% | 66% | 119% | 176% | 105% | 166% | 150% | 92% | 139% |
| 2025 | 89% | 60% | 135% | 71% | 94% | 111% | 74% | 96% | 124% | 110% | 135% | 100% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Prestfossen
Norway
- —Height
- 18 m³/sAverage flow
- May–AugBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q12717778) · 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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