Sri Lanka 
In numbers.
Nov–Feb
Best months
553m
Elevation
The water at Rathna ella, month by month
It roars from November to December.
The fullest months: from November to December. The thinnest: from June to September.
- 68%Jan
- 41%Feb
- 29%Mar
- 38%Apr
- 36%May
- 22%Jun
- 11%Jul
- 10%Aug
- 21%Sep
- 55%Oct
- 92%Nov
- 100%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from November to February.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Getting there.
- Badullanearest town · 8.5 km in a straight line
- Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (HRI)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 81 km in a straight lineCar hire at CMB airport (Colombo)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From November to Februarybest 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 126 m in 1.1 km. Here the river runs about 98 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 2viewpointsBogoda Wooden Bridge, Halamba Iron Bridge
- —waymarked walking routes
- —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
- 2hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
- 1restaurants 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
- Badulla8.5 km in a straight line
- Bogahakumbura11 km in a straight line
- Ella Town16 km in a straight line
- Nuwara Eliya22 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 | 25 | 26 | 28 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 30 | 30 | 28 | 26 | 25 |
| Night °C | 18 | 18 | 19 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 19 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 144 | 106 | 102 | 155 | 128 | 62 | 50 | 64 | 112 | 221 | 289 | 262 |
| Wet days | 13 | 10 | 11 | 21 | 19 | 15 | 13 | 13 | 16 | 24 | 25 | 20 |
| Sun h/day | 5.4 | 6.7 | 8.1 | 7.8 | 8.0 | 8.1 | 7.9 | 7.9 | 7.7 | 6.9 | 5.0 | 4.3 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (553 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 | 60% | 36% | 19% | 68% | 144% | 180% | 246% | 144% | 170% | 39% | 107% | 133% |
| 2021 | 184% | 86% | 159% | 82% | 195% | 248% | 267% | 260% | 210% | 134% | 194% | 67% |
| 2022 | 112% | 167% | 93% | 265% | 166% | 141% | 280% | 372% | 67% | 145% | 123% | 136% |
| 2023 | 87% | 167% | 102% | 94% | 190% | 191% | 146% | 141% | 377% | 334% | 137% | 212% |
| 2024 | 242% | 30% | 33% | 56% | 146% | 120% | 116% | 194% | 69% | 99% | 135% | 87% |
| 2025 | 205% | 112% | 190% | 206% | 154% | 103% | 71% | 105% | 120% | 171% | 213% | 78% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Rathna ella
Sri Lanka
- —Height
- —Average flow
- Nov–FebBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37810) · 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.
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