Kenya 
In numbers.
74m
Height
Apr–Jun
Nov
Best months
2,360m
Elevation
The water at Thomson's Falls, month by month
It roars from April to May.
The fullest months: from April to May. The thinnest: February.
- 31%Jan
- 14%Feb
- 30%Mar
- 95%Apr
- 100%May
- 75%Jun
- 59%Jul
- 62%Aug
- 56%Sep
- 60%Oct
- 74%Nov
- 57%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to June and November.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfalls on the Ewaso Ng'iro River in Kenya
Thomson's Falls is a waterfall in Kenya. The water falls 74 m.
Getting there.
- Nyahururunearest town · 1.0 km in a straight line
- Nanyuki Civil Airport (NYK)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 76 km in a straight lineCar hire at NBO airport (Nairobi)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April to June and Novemberbest 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.
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 150 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 51 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpointsThompson's Falls
- —waymarked walking routes
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 1campsitesThomson Falls Campsite
- 33hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmThomson Falls Lodge, Nyahururu Stadium Hotel, Olive Shades Lodging and 30 more
- 7restaurants 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
- Nyahururu1.0 km in a straight line
- Mairo Inya4.8 km in a straight line
- Karuga8.6 km in a straight line
- Ol Joro Orok13 km in a straight line
- Subukia19 km in a straight line
- Kasuku20 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 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 22 | 22 |
| Night °C | 9 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 42 | 30 | 83 | 189 | 140 | 96 | 94 | 109 | 90 | 108 | 128 | 80 |
| Wet days | 9 | 7 | 12 | 21 | 21 | 20 | 24 | 23 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 13 |
| Sun h/day | 9.7 | 10.0 | 9.5 | 8.5 | 9.1 | 8.5 | 7.7 | 8.2 | 9.3 | 8.2 | 7.7 | 8.8 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (2,360 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 | 353% | 276% | 269% | 189% | 144% | 242% | 125% | 141% | 179% | 136% | 126% | 126% |
| 2021 | 194% | 199% | 75% | 97% | 180% | 29% | 137% | 88% | 107% | 103% | 75% | 127% |
| 2022 | 118% | 130% | 121% | 73% | 72% | 64% | 106% | 219% | 177% | 62% | 115% | 106% |
| 2023 | 39% | 66% | 212% | 153% | 88% | 112% | 76% | 59% | 171% | 179% | 309% | 102% |
| 2024 | 347% | 368% | 134% | 242% | 248% | 76% | 176% | 124% | 136% | 67% | 259% | 109% |
| 2025 | 132% | 21% | 169% | 141% | 173% | 87% | 229% | 369% | 112% | 151% | 47% | 121% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q2748822) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| 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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