Japan 
In numbers.
210m
Height
1.4m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jul–Oct
Best months
2.8MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Ryūzu Falls, month by month
It roars from July to October.
The fullest months: from July to October. Below −4 °C on average (from January to February): the falls can partly freeze.
- 0.8 m³/sJan
- 0.6 m³/sFeb
- 1.1 m³/sMar
- 1.4 m³/sApr
- 1.4 m³/sMay
- 1.4 m³/sJun
- 2.1 m³/sJul
- 2.0 m³/sAug
- 2.2 m³/sSep
- 2.2 m³/sOct
- 1.5 m³/sNov
- 1.0 m³/sDec
From about 0.58 m³/s in the lowest month to 2.2 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from July to October.
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 Tochigi Prefecture, Japan
Ryūzu Falls is a waterfall in Japan. The water falls 210 m over a front 10 m wide. It lies within Nikkō National Park.
Getting there.
- Nikkōnearest town · 15 km in a straight line
- Parking 60 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Fukushima Airport (FKS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 101 km in a straight lineCar hire at KIJ airport (Niigata)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From July to Octoberbest 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.
2.8 MW
About 1.4 m³/s falling 210 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 708 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 127 m in 2.7 km. Here the river runs about 153 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 12viewpoints竜頭ノ滝, 湯滝, 竜頭滝展望台 and 9 more
- —waymarked walking routes
- 9car parks
- —swimming spots
- 2picnic sites
- 3toilets
- 1information boards and visitor centres
- 9bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 3campsites菖蒲ヶ浜キャンプ場, 湯元キャンプ場
- 32hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmKojo-en, 星野リゾート 界 日光, すぎもと館 and 29 more
- 9restaurants 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
- Nikkō15 km in a straight line
- Katashina19 km in a straight line
- Imaichi21 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 | 1 | 9 | 15 | 18 | 22 | 23 | 19 | 12 | 6 | -1 |
| Night °C | -10 | -10 | -7 | -2 | 4 | 9 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 4 | -2 | -7 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 93 | 61 | 88 | 103 | 111 | 147 | 220 | 179 | 187 | 170 | 100 | 105 |
| Wet days | 19 | 16 | 15 | 13 | 14 | 17 | 21 | 20 | 18 | 15 | 16 | 20 |
| Sun h/day | 1.8 | 3.0 | 4.3 | 5.1 | 6.1 | 5.2 | 4.2 | 5.6 | 4.8 | 3.8 | 2.8 | 1.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 22 | 24 | 16 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 16 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,325 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 | 122% | 74% | 113% | 145% | 83% | 105% | 169% | 45% | 128% | 79% | 37% | 62% |
| 2021 | 100% | 134% | 145% | 104% | 89% | 112% | 109% | 160% | 82% | 70% | 109% | 125% |
| 2022 | 53% | 104% | 84% | 131% | 126% | 84% | 100% | 97% | 110% | 51% | 98% | 103% |
| 2023 | 53% | 79% | 101% | 85% | 156% | 285% | 58% | 78% | 110% | 68% | 111% | 66% |
| 2024 | 98% | 134% | 177% | 86% | 148% | 97% | 88% | 133% | 121% | 110% | 125% | 59% |
| 2025 | 85% | 102% | 118% | 132% | 204% | 106% | 70% | 109% | 153% | 118% | 80% | 116% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Ryūzu Falls
Japan
- 210 mHeight
- 1.4 m³/sAverage flow
- Jul–OctBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37814) · 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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