Norway 
In numbers.
653m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr–May
Sep–Oct
Best months
18m
Elevation
The water at Sarp Falls, month by month
It roars from August to June.
It carries water fairly evenly through the year.
- 1,451 m³/sJan
- 876 m³/sFeb
- 640 m³/sMar
- 671 m³/sApr
- 743 m³/sMay
- 409 m³/sJun
- 169 m³/sJul
- 719 m³/sAug
- 1,019 m³/sSep
- 1,831 m³/sOct
- 1,757 m³/sNov
- 1,610 m³/sDec
From about 169 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,831 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to May and from September 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.
Getting there.
- Sarpsborgnearest town · 1.5 km in a straight line
- Parking 330 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Sandefjord Airport, Torp (TRF)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 51 km in a straight lineCar hire at TRF airport (Sandefjord)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April to May and from September 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.
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 24 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 40 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 3viewpointsSarpefossen
- 4waymarked walking routesKyststien i Østfold, Borgleden, Tusenårstien and 1 more
- 118car parks
- —swimming spots
- 9picnic sites
- 1toilets
- 33information boards and visitor centres
- 34bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- —campsites
- 7hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmQuality Hotel Sarpsborg, Tuneheimen, Scandic Sarpsborg and 4 more
- 21restaurants 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
- Sarpsborg1.5 km in a straight line
- Skjeberg7.9 km in a straight line
- Fredrikstad13 km in a straight line
- Karlshus17 km in a straight line
- Rakkestad21 km in a straight line
- Lervik22 km in a straight line
- Meieribyen22 km in a straight line
- Halden22 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 | -1 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 15 | 19 | 21 | 20 | 16 | 10 | 4 | 0 |
| Night °C | -5 | -5 | -3 | 2 | 7 | 11 | 14 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 0 | -4 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 80 | 61 | 53 | 58 | 82 | 86 | 102 | 116 | 90 | 105 | 97 | 80 |
| Wet days | 14 | 12 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 14 |
| Sun h/day | 0.4 | 1.8 | 4.8 | 6.6 | 8.2 | 9.4 | 8.2 | 6.6 | 5.1 | 2.5 | 0.8 | 0.3 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 17 | 19 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 16 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (18 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 | 112% | 156% | 137% | 65% | 49% | 123% | 115% | 30% | 102% | 150% | 106% | 203% |
| 2021 | 91% | 63% | 94% | 42% | 152% | 72% | 106% | 35% | 95% | 141% | 71% | 45% |
| 2022 | 71% | 169% | 18% | 34% | 72% | 92% | 65% | 51% | 98% | 102% | 124% | 121% |
| 2023 | 145% | 90% | 164% | 148% | 36% | 70% | 145% | 193% | 103% | 56% | 70% | 86% |
| 2024 | 128% | 196% | 162% | 141% | 75% | 113% | 137% | 129% | 106% | 66% | 49% | 110% |
| 2025 | 132% | 79% | 59% | 76% | 69% | 108% | 79% | 67% | 138% | 122% | 130% | 121% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Sarp Falls
Norway
- —Height
- 653 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr–May, Sep–OctBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q2225091) · 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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