United Kingdom 
In numbers.
Aug–Nov
Best months
240m
Elevation
The water at Scale Force, month by month
It roars from October to February.
The fullest months: from October to February.
- 96%Jan
- 83%Feb
- 70%Mar
- 54%Apr
- 46%May
- 46%Jun
- 54%Jul
- 66%Aug
- 63%Sep
- 79%Oct
- 92%Nov
- 100%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from August to November.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall in Cumbria, England, UK
Scale Force is a waterfall in United Kingdom.
Getting there.
- Frizingtonnearest town · 12 km in a straight line
- Parking 1,820 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Isle of Man Airport (IOM)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 99 km in a straight lineCar hire at BLK airport (Blackpool)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From August to Novemberbest 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 363 m in 2.3 km. Here the river runs about 52 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpoints
- 2waymarked walking routesCoast to Coast Walk (St Bees to Shap), Buttermere to Rannerdale Walk, North Lakes Outdoors
- 3car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 2campsitesDalegarth Guest House Camp Site, Syke Farm Campsite
- 18hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmCrummockwater Cottages, Lowpark Cottage, The Place and 15 more
- 2restaurants 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
- Frizington12 km in a straight line
- Keswick13 km in a straight line
- Cleator Moor13 km in a straight line
- Cockermouth14 km in a straight line
- Egremont16 km in a straight line
- Distington16 km in a straight line
- Whitehaven18 km in a straight line
- Workington18 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 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 15 | 12 | 8 | 6 |
| Night °C | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 3 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 125 | 100 | 87 | 67 | 80 | 96 | 114 | 128 | 100 | 130 | 129 | 135 |
| Wet days | 19 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 17 | 19 | 20 | 17 | 19 | 20 | 19 |
| Sun h/day | 0.9 | 2.3 | 3.8 | 5.8 | 6.7 | 5.8 | 5.8 | 5.0 | 4.2 | 2.4 | 1.3 | 0.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 7 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (240 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 | 103% | 256% | 101% | 29% | 39% | 142% | 137% | 126% | 82% | 128% | 115% | 131% |
| 2021 | 129% | 159% | 134% | 22% | 159% | 36% | 64% | 67% | 86% | 179% | 61% | 100% |
| 2022 | 48% | 186% | 56% | 80% | 102% | 80% | 63% | 50% | 102% | 118% | 119% | 78% |
| 2023 | 111% | 45% | 169% | 117% | 54% | 67% | 167% | 80% | 154% | 81% | 113% | 152% |
| 2024 | 141% | 125% | 135% | 215% | 134% | 73% | 81% | 117% | 72% | 83% | 51% | 107% |
| 2025 | 71% | 72% | 45% | 45% | 71% | 125% | 91% | 50% | 189% | 83% | 154% | 125% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Scale Force
United Kingdom
- —Height
- —Average flow
- Aug–NovBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q339843) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| 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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