Canada 
In numbers.
0.15m³/s
Average flow
estimate
May–Jul
Best months
1,384m
Elevation
The water at Sunwapta Falls, month by month
It roars from May to June.
The fullest months: from May to June, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from September to March. Below −4 °C on average (from November to March): the falls can partly freeze.
- 0.0 m³/sJan
- 0.0 m³/sFeb
- 0.1 m³/sMar
- 0.2 m³/sApr
- 0.4 m³/sMay
- 0.5 m³/sJun
- 0.3 m³/sJul
- 0.2 m³/sAug
- 0.1 m³/sSep
- 0.1 m³/sOct
- 0.1 m³/sNov
- 0.0 m³/sDec
From about 0.03 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.46 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to July.
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 Jasper National Park in Canada
Sunwapta Falls is a waterfall in Canada. It lies within Jasper National Park.
Getting there.
- Parking 90 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Whitecourt Airport (YZU)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 218 km in a straight lineCar hire at YZU airport (Whitecourt)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to Julybest 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 23 m in 1.9 km. Here the river runs about 37 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 2viewpointsLower Sunwapta Falls, Sunwapta Falls
- —waymarked walking routes
- 2car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 2toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 2campsitesBig Bend, Honeymoon Lake Campground
- 1hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmSunwapta Falls Rocky Mountain Lodge
- 1restaurants 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).
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | -4 | -4 | -1 | 3 | 9 | 15 | 19 | 18 | 13 | 5 | -2 | -6 |
| Night °C | -13 | -14 | -11 | -6 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 4 | -3 | -10 | -14 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 53 | 44 | 66 | 60 | 78 | 116 | 103 | 72 | 69 | 67 | 63 | 45 |
| Wet days | 16 | 12 | 18 | 17 | 19 | 22 | 20 | 17 | 15 | 17 | 18 | 14 |
| Sun h/day | 2.3 | 4.0 | 4.7 | 5.8 | 6.7 | 6.5 | 8.0 | 7.4 | 5.5 | 3.7 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 58 | 70 | 79 | 71 | 30 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 17 | 29 | 45 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,384 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 | 149% | 146% | 102% | 96% | 114% | 117% | 130% | 80% | 69% | 148% | 110% | 106% |
| 2021 | 101% | 144% | 75% | 77% | 122% | 68% | 60% | 141% | 83% | 69% | 151% | 154% |
| 2022 | 136% | 140% | 92% | 93% | 91% | 144% | 47% | 126% | 41% | 58% | 93% | 108% |
| 2023 | 89% | 184% | 49% | 91% | 112% | 134% | 98% | 142% | 65% | 52% | 61% | 119% |
| 2024 | 101% | 169% | 77% | 115% | 135% | 97% | 54% | 173% | 93% | 129% | 87% | 121% |
| 2025 | 84% | 83% | 155% | 88% | 115% | 105% | 116% | 110% | 83% | 92% | 100% | 283% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Sunwapta Falls
Canada
- —Height
- 0.15 m³/sAverage flow
- May–JulBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q937311) · 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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