United States 
In numbers.
65m
Height
297m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Mar–Jun
Best months
189MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Shoshone Falls, month by month
It roars from February to May.
The fullest months: from February to May. The thinnest: from August to October.
- 503 m³/sJan
- 563 m³/sFeb
- 630 m³/sMar
- 661 m³/sApr
- 645 m³/sMay
- 432 m³/sJun
- 231 m³/sJul
- 105 m³/sAug
- 106 m³/sSep
- 172 m³/sOct
- 233 m³/sNov
- 373 m³/sDec
From about 105 m³/s in the lowest month to 661 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from March to June.
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 Snake River in Twin Falls and Jerome counties in Idaho, United States
Shoshone Falls is a waterfall in United States. The water falls 65 m over a front 992 m wide.
Getting there.
- Twin Fallsnearest town · 6.1 km in a straight line
- Parking 280 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Joslin Field Magic Valley Regional Airport (TWF)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 14 km in a straight lineCar hire at TWF airport (Twin Falls)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From March to Junebest 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.
189 MW
About 297 m³/s falling 65 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 63 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 47,200 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 64 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 152 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 5viewpointsShoshone Falls Observation Deck and 4 more
- —waymarked walking routes
- 6car parks
- 1swimming spotsDierkes Lake
- 1picnic sites
- 2toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 kmPillar Falls
- —caves
- —campsites
- 21hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmWeston Inn, Twin Falls Motel, Kimberly Road Extended Stay and 18 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
- Twin Falls6.1 km in a straight line
- Kimberly7.4 km in a straight line
- Hansen11 km in a straight line
- Filer17 km in a straight line
- Jerome17 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 | 4 | 7 | 12 | 17 | 23 | 29 | 36 | 34 | 28 | 19 | 10 | 4 |
| Night °C | -5 | -3 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 13 | 19 | 18 | 13 | 5 | 0 | -4 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 42 | 31 | 40 | 44 | 45 | 21 | 10 | 14 | 19 | 29 | 34 | 54 |
| Wet days | 10 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Sun h/day | 4.7 | 5.5 | 6.8 | 8.7 | 10.4 | 12.3 | 12.6 | 11.4 | 9.9 | 7.8 | 5.4 | 3.5 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 17 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 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 (992 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 | 126% | 61% | 88% | 48% | 86% | 243% | 74% | 28% | 18% | 40% | 102% | 33% |
| 2021 | 55% | 122% | 48% | 21% | 41% | 16% | 186% | 95% | 58% | 248% | 71% | 85% |
| 2022 | 87% | 17% | 36% | 72% | 114% | 70% | 27% | 78% | 56% | 64% | 112% | 85% |
| 2023 | 77% | 84% | 133% | 32% | 120% | 180% | 53% | 225% | 216% | 129% | 112% | 75% |
| 2024 | 142% | 166% | 152% | 39% | 65% | 62% | 74% | 50% | 73% | 39% | 71% | 133% |
| 2025 | 47% | 202% | 79% | 16% | 50% | 10% | 94% | 162% | 126% | 127% | 21% | 115% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Shoshone Falls
United States
- 65 mHeight
- 297 m³/sAverage flow
- Mar–JunBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q1635297) · 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.
The family
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