Norway 
In numbers.
15m³/s
Average flow
estimate
May–Aug
Best months
675m
Elevation
The water at Rjukandefoss, month by month
It roars from May to July.
The fullest months: from May to July, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from December to March. Below −4 °C on average (from December to March): the falls can partly freeze.
- 6.3 m³/sJan
- 4.0 m³/sFeb
- 9.2 m³/sMar
- 25 m³/sApr
- 46 m³/sMay
- 51 m³/sJun
- 44 m³/sJul
- 38 m³/sAug
- 28 m³/sSep
- 21 m³/sOct
- 15 m³/sNov
- 9.0 m³/sDec
From about 4.0 m³/s in the lowest month to 51 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.
Getting there.
- Hemsedalnearest town · 5.0 km in a straight line
- Parking 230 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Oslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 163 km in a straight lineCar hire at OSL airport (Oslo)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 88 m in 3.5 km. Here the river runs about 122 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 2viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 5car parks
- —swimming spots
- 2picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- 6bus stops within 1 km
- 2other named waterfalls within 4 kmBekkefoss, Kvislefoss
- —caves
- 3campsitesRjukandefoss Camping og Hytter, Øya Camping, Hemsedal Fjellcamp
- 7hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmFanitullen, Hemsetunet, Hemsedal Cafe and 4 more
- 5restaurants 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
- Hemsedal5.0 km in a straight line
- Trøim5.7 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 | -5 | -4 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 15 | 18 | 16 | 11 | 4 | -1 | -4 |
| Night °C | -10 | -11 | -9 | -4 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 4 | -1 | -6 | -9 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 72 | 49 | 53 | 64 | 99 | 117 | 148 | 143 | 100 | 95 | 81 | 70 |
| Wet days | 17 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 19 | 21 | 20 | 17 | 18 | 17 | 17 |
| Sun h/day | 1.4 | 3.0 | 6.2 | 8.8 | 7.6 | 7.2 | 6.7 | 5.6 | 4.2 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 64 | 77 | 79 | 62 | 29 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 16 | 29 | 46 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (675 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 | 104% | 164% | 116% | 92% | 47% | 136% | 109% | 78% | 121% | 174% | 125% | 178% |
| 2021 | 80% | 87% | 86% | 65% | 110% | 105% | 136% | 52% | 100% | 129% | 94% | 63% |
| 2022 | 78% | 162% | 46% | 41% | 108% | 119% | 63% | 71% | 123% | 109% | 168% | 71% |
| 2023 | 155% | 98% | 127% | 174% | 66% | 86% | 143% | 226% | 125% | 56% | 83% | 106% |
| 2024 | 87% | 174% | 200% | 94% | 83% | 159% | 171% | 128% | 167% | 118% | 58% | 127% |
| 2025 | 100% | 68% | 89% | 63% | 64% | 92% | 114% | 87% | 182% | 135% | 103% | 116% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Rjukandefoss
Norway
- —Height
- 15 m³/sAverage flow
- May–AugBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q7339172) · 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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