Switzerland 
In numbers.
23m
Height
750m³/s
Average flow
May–Aug
Best months
169MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Rhine Falls, month by month
It roars from January to October.
It carries water fairly evenly through the year.
- 659 m³/sJan
- 683 m³/sFeb
- 825 m³/sMar
- 769 m³/sApr
- 1,209 m³/sMay
- 1,226 m³/sJun
- 1,277 m³/sJul
- 1,192 m³/sAug
- 923 m³/sSep
- 753 m³/sOct
- 378 m³/sNov
- 502 m³/sDec
From about 378 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,277 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.
Waterfall on the Rhein River in Switzerland
Rhine Falls is a waterfall in Switzerland. The water falls 23 m over a front 1,500 m wide.
Getting there.
- Neuhausennearest town · 1.0 km in a straight line
- Parking 530 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Zürich Airport (ZRH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 25 km in a straight lineCar hire at ZRH airport (Zurich)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.
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.
169 MW
About 750 m³/s falling 23 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 56 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 42,300 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.
Here the river runs about 35 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 43viewpointsFischetz, Känzeli Schloss Laufen, Känzeli and 40 more
- 82waymarked walking routesOstweg, Hochrhein-Höhenweg, Flurlingen - Antennenturm and 79 more
- 289car parks
- —swimming spots
- 49picnic sites
- 24toilets
- 35information boards and visitor centres
- 47bus stops within 1 km
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 km
- 4caves
- 5campsitesAm Rheinfall, Camping Schaffhausen, Wohnmobilstellplatz Lottstetten and 2 more
- 44hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHotel Lottstetten, Schweizer Hof, Hotel Kronenhof and 41 more
- 170restaurants 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
- Neuhausen1.0 km in a straight line
- Flurlingen1.3 km in a straight line
- Dachsen1.4 km in a straight line
- Uhwiesen1.6 km in a straight line
- Feuerthalen2.6 km in a straight line
- Schaffhausen2.7 km in a straight line
- Beringen3.8 km in a straight line
- Jestetten4.8 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 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 19 | 23 | 24 | 24 | 20 | 15 | 9 | 4 |
| Night °C | -2 | -2 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 11 | 7 | 2 | -1 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 94 | 74 | 92 | 91 | 141 | 139 | 144 | 146 | 103 | 100 | 87 | 102 |
| Wet days | 13 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 18 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 15 |
| Sun h/day | 2.5 | 3.7 | 5.3 | 6.5 | 6.7 | 8.0 | 8.1 | 7.3 | 6.0 | 4.2 | 2.4 | 2.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 15 | 14 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 14 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (369 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 | 56% | 204% | 88% | 47% | 83% | 143% | 66% | 145% | 92% | 145% | 36% | 107% |
| 2021 | 213% | 84% | 81% | 50% | 128% | 159% | 196% | 99% | 69% | 51% | 80% | 130% |
| 2022 | 58% | 135% | 23% | 111% | 70% | 110% | 55% | 106% | 168% | 102% | 105% | 98% |
| 2023 | 59% | 57% | 145% | 167% | 95% | 37% | 114% | 132% | 61% | 112% | 283% | 182% |
| 2024 | 130% | 104% | 150% | 123% | 163% | 135% | 100% | 68% | 185% | 121% | 97% | 95% |
| 2025 | 137% | 51% | 61% | 62% | 82% | 80% | 154% | 104% | 170% | 107% | 121% | 22% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Rhine Falls
Switzerland
- 23 mHeight
- 750 m³/sAverage flow
- May–AugBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q214924) · 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.
The family
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