Germany Waterfall

Selkefall

One of the waterfalls of Germany.

When to go

FrankBothe · CC BY-SA 4.0

In numbers.

0.85m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Apr–May
Jul
Sep

Best months

315m

Elevation

The water at Selkefall, month by month

It runs all year.

It carries water fairly evenly through the year.

0.9 m³/sJan
0.4 m³/sFeb
1.7 m³/sMar
1.4 m³/sApr
1.6 m³/sMay
0.5 m³/sJun
0.9 m³/sJul
0.4 m³/sAug
0.4 m³/sSep
0.4 m³/sOct
0.9 m³/sNov
0.4 m³/sDec

high water best months to go

From about 0.38 m³/s in the lowest month to 1.7 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to May, July and September.

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.

Selkefall is a waterfall in Germany.

Getting there.

Harzgerodenearest town · 2.4 km in a straight line
Parking 490 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
Erfurt-Weimar Airport (ERF)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 77 km in a straight lineCar hire at LEJ airport (Schkeuditz)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
From April to May, July and Septemberbest months to go (estimate)

Plan your visit

Stay, explore and get there

Car hire at LEJ airport (Schkeuditz)Discover CarsSee

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.

The Selke through the falls

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

Around the falls the river drops 28 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 78 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

20viewpointsMägdetrappe, Aussichtspunkt Habichtstein, Blick zum Steinbruch Schneckenberg and 17 more
26waymarked walking routesSelketal - Stieg, Wege deutscher Kaiser und Könige des Mittelalters im Harz, Harzklub-Weg 34D and 23 more
49car parks
—swimming spots
16picnic sites
3toilets
49information boards and visitor centres
4bus stops within 1 km
—other named waterfalls within 4 km
—caves
5campsitesStellplatz am Drahtzug, Harz-Camp Bremer Teich - Dauercampingbereich, Ferienpark Birnbaumteich and 2 more
24hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmSelketaler Waldgasthof, Pension Wolfshof, Ferienwohnung mit Herz im Harz and 21 more
13restaurants 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

Harzgerode2.4 km in a straight line
Friedrichsbrunn6.8 km in a straight line
Gernrode7.5 km in a straight line
Bad Suderode8.2 km in a straight line
Rieder8.8 km in a straight line
Ballenstedt10 km in a straight line
Neinstedt10 km in a straight line
Thale11 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	2	3	7	14	18	22	24	24	19	13	7	2
Night °C	-4	-4	-2	3	7	11	13	13	8	4	1	-2
Rain & snow (mm)	47	33	42	34	65	56	76	60	54	47	50	50
Wet days	12	10	11	10	12	13	14	12	10	11	11	13
Sun h/day	1.1	2.4	4.0	6.2	6.6	7.1	6.7	6.0	5.0	3.0	1.2	0.7
Snow on the ground (cm)	14	13	8	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	5	12

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (315 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Selkewasserfall Bei Alexisbad Harz (148197589) — Evelin Hohnwald · CC BY 3.0

Selkewasserfall Bei Alexisbad Harz (148197591) — Evelin Hohnwald · CC BY 3.0

Selkefall (50790815661) — Markus Trienke · CC BY-SA 2.0

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.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2020	48%	195%	76%	27%	71%	131%	48%	143%	76%	133%	18%	63%
2021	117%	171%	67%	115%	130%	137%	123%	191%	53%	63%	78%	68%
2022	78%	107%	29%	88%	60%	55%	60%	79%	114%	90%	69%	114%
2023	118%	105%	175%	166%	47%	131%	88%	215%	31%	220%	160%	191%
2024	114%	227%	100%	121%	149%	137%	109%	106%	146%	133%	93%	87%
2025	146%	73%	55%	106%	77%	82%	120%	69%	117%	135%	74%	50%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Selkefall

Germany

—Height
0.85 m³/sAverage flow
Apr–May, Jul, SepBest months

Königshütte Waterfall

Germany

15 mHeight
0.62 m³/sAverage flow
Apr–May, Jul, OctBest months

See the guide

Steinerne Renne

Germany

—Height
0.41 m³/sAverage flow
Apr–May, Jul, OctBest months

See the guide

Ilsefälle

Germany

—Height
—Average flow
Apr–May, Jul, OctBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, river	Wikidata (Q1399154) · 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.