Norway 
In numbers.
30m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jun–Sep
Best months
14m
Elevation
The water at Skoltefossen, month by month
It roars from May to June.
The fullest months: from May to June, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from November to March. Below −4 °C on average (from November to March): the falls can partly freeze.
- 14 m³/sJan
- 11 m³/sFeb
- 14 m³/sMar
- 32 m³/sApr
- 70 m³/sMay
- 61 m³/sJun
- 48 m³/sJul
- 41 m³/sAug
- 36 m³/sSep
- 26 m³/sOct
- 20 m³/sNov
- 18 m³/sDec
From about 11 m³/s in the lowest month to 70 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to 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.
Waterfall in Sør-Varanger municipality, Norway
Skoltefossen is a waterfall in Norway.
Getting there.
- Bjørnevatnnearest town · 24 km in a straight line
- Parking 50 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen (KKN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 20 km in a straight lineCar hire at KKN airport (Kirkenes)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From June to Septemberbest 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 18 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 48 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 9car parks
- —swimming spots
- 3picnic sites
- 4toilets
- 2information boards and visitor centres
- 4bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 1campsitesNeiden Fjellstue
- 1hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmNeiden
- —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
- Bjørnevatn24 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 | -8 | -8 | -4 | 1 | 8 | 13 | 18 | 15 | 10 | 2 | -4 | -6 |
| Night °C | -15 | -14 | -10 | -4 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 9 | 5 | -1 | -9 | -12 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 40 | 34 | 38 | 45 | 75 | 91 | 110 | 98 | 69 | 62 | 43 | 45 |
| Wet days | 12 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 12 | 13 |
| Sun h/day | 0.6 | 2.3 | 6.0 | 7.9 | 7.3 | 7.0 | 6.3 | 4.4 | 3.1 | 1.1 | 0.4 | — |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 44 | 54 | 60 | 48 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 22 | 32 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (14 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 | 164% | 139% | 153% | 130% | 104% | 109% | 96% | 110% | 91% | 86% | 92% | 73% |
| 2021 | 86% | 106% | 114% | 109% | 165% | 120% | 120% | 155% | 51% | 162% | 117% | 102% |
| 2022 | 126% | 125% | 112% | 94% | 89% | 70% | 123% | 106% | 137% | 127% | 71% | 72% |
| 2023 | 102% | 147% | 128% | 56% | 120% | 61% | 82% | 111% | 223% | 75% | 59% | 55% |
| 2024 | 95% | 94% | 109% | 109% | 82% | 103% | 68% | 59% | 120% | 89% | 154% | 139% |
| 2025 | 160% | 115% | 129% | 180% | 109% | 89% | 101% | 132% | 116% | 143% | 116% | 177% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Skoltefossen
Norway
- —Height
- 30 m³/sAverage flow
- Jun–SepBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q34679540) · 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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