Zimbabwe 
In numbers.
2.1m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Dec–Mar
Best months
1,676m
Elevation
The water at Pungwe Falls, month by month
It roars from December to February.
The fullest months: from December to February. The thinnest: from May to October.
- 6.9 m³/sJan
- 6.4 m³/sFeb
- 5.2 m³/sMar
- 3.0 m³/sApr
- 1.2 m³/sMay
- 0.4 m³/sJun
- 0.4 m³/sJul
- 0.2 m³/sAug
- 0.2 m³/sSep
- 0.4 m³/sOct
- 1.8 m³/sNov
- 5.7 m³/sDec
From about 0.17 m³/s in the lowest month to 6.9 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from December to March.
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 Zimbabwe
Pungwe Falls is a waterfall in Zimbabwe.
Getting there.
- Nyanganearest town · 22 km in a straight line
- Chimoio Airport (VPY)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 107 km in a straight lineCar hire at HRE airport (Harare)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From December to Marchbest 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 245 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 90 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpointsPungwe Falls Viewpoint
- —waymarked walking routes
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- 1information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 kmPungwe Falls
- —caves
- 1campsites
- 5hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmMutarazi Cottages Far and Wide, Pungwe Drift Cottage 1, Pungwe Drift Cottage 2 and 2 more
- —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
- Nyanga22 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 | 23 | 23 | 22 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 16 | 20 | 23 | 25 | 26 | 24 |
| Night °C | 14 | 13 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 12 | 14 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 265 | 217 | 184 | 88 | 26 | 22 | 34 | 8 | 22 | 46 | 124 | 300 |
| Wet days | 24 | 22 | 21 | 13 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 16 | 23 |
| Sun h/day | 7.6 | 7.7 | 7.8 | 8.4 | 9.1 | 8.6 | 8.6 | 9.8 | 9.8 | 9.5 | 8.2 | 7.4 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,676 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
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 | 113% | 134% | 47% | 126% | 47% | 166% | 42% | 131% | 112% | 153% | 135% | 179% |
| 2021 | 340% | 175% | 74% | 78% | 105% | 141% | 142% | 286% | 139% | 118% | 47% | 67% |
| 2022 | 184% | 77% | 131% | 300% | 131% | 465% | 52% | 282% | 27% | 54% | 215% | 64% |
| 2023 | 80% | 150% | 96% | 16% | 84% | 42% | 132% | 485% | 46% | 185% | 148% | 96% |
| 2024 | 107% | 56% | 168% | 70% | 117% | 122% | 0% | 462% | 68% | 98% | 159% | 50% |
| 2025 | 111% | 166% | 88% | 176% | 83% | 93% | 49% | 32% | 145% | 71% | 173% | 158% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Pungwe Falls
Zimbabwe
- —Height
- 2.1 m³/sAverage flow
- Dec–MarBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q31999904) · 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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