Skip to content
Cascadyas
EN

Switzerland Switzerland Waterfall

Saut du Doubs

A 27 m drop.

When to go

Le saut du Doubs (The jump of the Doubs)
ALLIOT A & B · CC BY-SA 2.0

In numbers.

27m

Height

33m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Apr–Jun
Aug

Best months

8.7MW

Water power

estimate

The water at Saut du Doubs, month by month

It roars in January, from March to August and in October.

The fullest months: January, from March to August and October.

  1. 27 m³/sJan
  2. 18 m³/sFeb
  3. 36 m³/sMar
  4. 34 m³/sApr
  5. 54 m³/sMay
  6. 40 m³/sJun
  7. 27 m³/sJul
  8. 28 m³/sAug
  9. 13 m³/sSep
  10. 22 m³/sOct
  11. 13 m³/sNov
  12. 21 m³/sDec
high water best months to go

From about 13 m³/s in the lowest month to 54 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to June and 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 Doubs river, on the border of France and Switzerland

Saut du Doubs is a waterfall in Switzerland. The water falls 27 m.

Getting there.

  • Les Brenetsnearest town · 1.9 km in a straight line
  • Parking 480 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
  • Bern Airport (BRN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 63 km in a straight lineCar hire at BRN airport (Bern)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • From April to June and 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.

27 mSaut du Doubs1.8 ma person9.0 ma house56 mTower of Pisa

Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.

8.7 MW

About 33 m³/s falling 27 m: the power of the water as it drops.

  • as much as 2.9 large wind turbines
  • enough to power about 2,200 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.

Saut du Doubs seen from above (Sentinel-2) N 2 km

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The Le Doubs through the falls
720 m740 m760 mSaut du Doubs0+0.5 km+1 km+1.5 km← upstreamdownstream →

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.

The valley below the falls
−690 m+690 m

Around the falls the river drops 37 m in 2.3 km. Here the river runs about 197 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

  • 14viewpointsVue sur Saut-du-Doubs, Belevedère des Taillards, Belvedère des Recrettes and 11 more
  • 27waymarked walking routesHôtel du Saut du Doubs - Saut du Doubs, Parc de la crête - Gare des Brenets, Parc de la crête - Tête de Calvin and 24 more
  • 21car parks
  • —swimming spots
  • 18picnic sites
  • 7toilets
  • 9information boards and visitor centres
  • —bus stops within 1 km
  • —other named waterfalls within 4 km
  • 4caves
  • 4campsitesAire des Vedettes panoramiques du Doubs, Aire des Bateaux du Saut-du-Doubs, Camping La Belle Verte and 1 more
  • 26hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmLes Saneys, Les Rives du Doubs, Les Cygnes and 23 more
  • 24restaurants 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

  • Les Brenets1.9 km in a straight line
  • Villers-le-Lac4.0 km in a straight line
  • Le Locle4.3 km in a straight line
  • Les Fins6.1 km in a straight line
  • Morteau8.3 km in a straight line
  • Le Russey8.6 km in a straight line
  • La Chaux-de-Fonds8.9 km in a straight line
  • Montlebon9.1 km in a straight line

Weather

The weather, month by month.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C2381316202222181473
Night °C-4-4048121413951-3
Rain & snow (mm)85668683124112113118831008596
Wet days121213131716161413131314
Sun h/day2.23.55.16.56.88.48.57.66.44.32.41.7
Snow on the ground (cm)1615105100002915

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (730 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Chute d'eau du Doubs (Waterfall of the Doubs)
ALLIOT A & B · CC BY-SA 2.0
Doubs ausgetrocknet Sommer 2022
Lu-xin · CC BY-SA 4.0
Le saut du Doubs - panoramio (1)
Arnaud Lemaire · CC BY-SA 3.0

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.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
202055%187%90%46%92%150%42%94%96%178%31%92%
2021122%73%62%49%128%148%158%64%73%74%63%147%
202254%119%28%124%45%102%36%65%214%88%136%113%
202392%23%137%126%64%40%89%81%55%141%281%160%
2024119%108%113%112%143%132%82%78%228%150%83%113%
2025154%58%50%88%70%107%108%109%189%135%155%28%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Saut du Doubs

Switzerland

  • 27 mHeight
  • 33 m³/sAverage flow
  • Apr–Jun, AugBest months

Cascade du moulin de Vermondans

France

  • —Height
  • —Average flow
  • Mar–May, NovBest months

See the guide

Cascade de Syratu

France

  • 230 mHeight
  • —Average flow
  • Mar–May, NovBest months

See the guide

Cascade de l'Audeux

France

  • —Height
  • 2.3 m³/sAverage flow
  • Mar–May, NovBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q2227821) · CC0
River flow and catchmentHydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0
ClimateNASA POWER, 1991–2020
Relief, river profile, 3D modelCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Paths, viewpoints, parking© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX 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

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.