Japan 
In numbers.
30m
Height
2.7m³/s
Average flow
estimate
May
Aug–Oct
Best months
798kW
Water power
estimate
The water at Shirahige Falls, month by month
It roars from April to May.
The fullest months: from April to May, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from January to February. Below −4 °C on average (from December to March): the falls can partly freeze.
- 0.8 m³/sJan
- 0.3 m³/sFeb
- 2.0 m³/sMar
- 6.6 m³/sApr
- 5.8 m³/sMay
- 3.7 m³/sJun
- 3.3 m³/sJul
- 4.6 m³/sAug
- 4.8 m³/sSep
- 4.3 m³/sOct
- 3.3 m³/sNov
- 2.7 m³/sDec
From about 0.35 m³/s in the lowest month to 6.6 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: May and from August 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.
Shirahige Falls is a waterfall on the Biei River, in Japan. The water falls 30 m over a front 40 m wide.
Getting there.
- Kami-furanonearest town · 14 km in a straight line
- Parking 100 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Asahikawa Airport (AKJ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 27 km in a straight lineCar hire at CTS airport (Sapporo)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- May and from August 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.
798 kW
About 2.7 m³/s falling 30 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 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.
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 39 m in 0.4 km.
What is around.
- 1viewpoints白髭の滝
- —waymarked walking routes
- 11car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 1toilets
- 3information boards and visitor centres
- 1bus stops within 1 km
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 km白金不動の滝
- —caves
- 3campsites白銀荘前キャンプ場, 国設白金野営場, 道の駅 びえい「白金ビルケ」キャンピングカーサイト
- 6hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHotel Park Hills, 湯元白金温泉ホテル, Resort house bibi and 3 more
- —restaurants 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
- Kami-furano14 km in a straight line
- Biei19 km in a straight line
- Naka-furano19 km in a straight line
- Shimo-furano25 km in a straight line
- Furano25 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 | -7 | -6 | -2 | 5 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 23 | 18 | 10 | 2 | -5 |
| Night °C | -14 | -14 | -10 | -3 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 14 | 10 | 2 | -4 | -12 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 70 | 61 | 56 | 52 | 69 | 80 | 119 | 154 | 126 | 107 | 103 | 97 |
| Wet days | 20 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 19 | 22 |
| Sun h/day | 2.9 | 3.9 | 5.3 | 6.1 | 6.1 | 5.7 | 5.3 | 5.0 | 4.9 | 4.0 | 2.2 | 1.9 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 56 | 70 | 64 | 19 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 29 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (612 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
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 | 56% | 75% | 134% | 123% | 109% | 108% | 45% | 85% | 77% | 135% | 80% | 75% |
| 2021 | 97% | 127% | 110% | 199% | 130% | 39% | 17% | 90% | 82% | 133% | 141% | 80% |
| 2022 | 121% | 69% | 94% | 29% | 118% | 184% | 110% | 150% | 77% | 91% | 53% | 92% |
| 2023 | 66% | 64% | 83% | 184% | 81% | 186% | 97% | 95% | 121% | 106% | 106% | 66% |
| 2024 | 72% | 70% | 75% | 94% | 94% | 89% | 125% | 141% | 66% | 131% | 77% | 48% |
| 2025 | 60% | 111% | 165% | 234% | 88% | 123% | 87% | 135% | 184% | 83% | 133% | 140% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Shirahige Falls
Japan
- 30 mHeight
- 2.7 m³/sAverage flow
- May, Aug–OctBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q17228813) · 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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