Austria 
In numbers.
70m
Height
OpenStreetMap
0.55m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jun–Sep
Best months
374kW
Water power
estimate
The water at Riesachfälle, month by month
It roars from May to September.
The fullest months: from May to September. Below −4 °C on average (from December to February): the falls can partly freeze.
- 0.2 m³/sJan
- 0.3 m³/sFeb
- 0.5 m³/sMar
- 0.6 m³/sApr
- 0.8 m³/sMay
- 1.0 m³/sJun
- 1.1 m³/sJul
- 1.1 m³/sAug
- 0.9 m³/sSep
- 0.6 m³/sOct
- 0.3 m³/sNov
- 0.2 m³/sDec
From about 0.19 m³/s in the lowest month to 1.1 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to September.
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 Styria
Riesachfälle is a waterfall in Austria. The water falls 70 m.
Getting there.
- Hausnearest town · 9.2 km in a straight line
- Parking 360 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Salzburg Airport (SZG)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 77 km in a straight lineCar hire at SZG airport (Salzburg)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From June to Septemberbest 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 as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
374 kW
About 0.55 m³/s falling 70 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 94 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 260 m in 1.3 km.
What is around.
- 5viewpoints
- 6waymarked walking routesWanderweg 777, Wanderweg 778, Wanderweg 779, Höhenweg Planai and 3 more
- 7car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 1toilets
- 6information boards and visitor centres
- 1bus stops within 1 km
- 2other named waterfalls within 4 kmKleiner Riesachfall, Schleierwasserfall
- —caves
- —campsites
- 19hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmFahrlechhütte, Preintalerhütte, Gollinghütte and 16 more
- 3restaurants 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
- Haus9.2 km in a straight line
- Haus im Ennstal9.2 km in a straight line
- Schladming9.3 km in a straight line
- Ramsau am Dachstein13 km in a straight line
- Michaelerberg13 km in a straight line
- Pruggern14 km in a straight line
- Kleinsölk15 km in a straight line
- Gröbming16 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 | -3 | 2 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 18 | 17 | 12 | 8 | 3 | -2 |
| Night °C | -11 | -10 | -7 | -3 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 3 | -1 | -5 | -9 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 82 | 67 | 81 | 75 | 140 | 166 | 177 | 175 | 132 | 96 | 73 | 76 |
| Wet days | 14 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 19 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 15 |
| Sun h/day | 3.0 | 4.5 | 5.2 | 5.7 | 5.5 | 6.4 | 7.0 | 6.5 | 5.1 | 4.5 | 2.8 | 2.4 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 27 | 25 | 18 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 12 | 19 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,593 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 | 50% | 192% | 83% | 63% | 99% | 124% | 131% | 145% | 140% | 154% | 34% | 103% |
| 2021 | 110% | 55% | 86% | 84% | 120% | 59% | 118% | 122% | 56% | 49% | 129% | 135% |
| 2022 | 84% | 135% | 24% | 125% | 100% | 113% | 88% | 88% | 130% | 138% | 120% | 80% |
| 2023 | 90% | 125% | 134% | 182% | 96% | 64% | 121% | 144% | 35% | 94% | 269% | 216% |
| 2024 | 91% | 106% | 92% | 124% | 107% | 137% | 95% | 73% | 211% | 104% | 36% | 87% |
| 2025 | 51% | 40% | 147% | 112% | 134% | 76% | 152% | 68% | 94% | 94% | 107% | 29% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Riesachfälle
Austria
- 70 mHeight
- 0.55 m³/sAverage flow
- Jun–SepBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q2152297) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| 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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