United States 
In numbers.
97m
Height
2.6m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Mar–May
Best months
2.5MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Vernal Fall, month by month
It roars from February to April.
The fullest months: from February to April, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from June to November.
- 3.1 m³/sJan
- 4.0 m³/sFeb
- 4.3 m³/sMar
- 4.2 m³/sApr
- 2.7 m³/sMay
- 1.4 m³/sJun
- 0.8 m³/sJul
- 0.6 m³/sAug
- 0.6 m³/sSep
- 0.9 m³/sOct
- 1.4 m³/sNov
- 2.8 m³/sDec
From about 0.62 m³/s in the lowest month to 4.3 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from March to May.
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 Yosemite National Park, California
Vernal Fall is a waterfall in United States. The water falls 97 m. It lies within Yosemite Wilderness.
Getting there.
- Yosemite Valleynearest town · 3.3 km in a straight line
- Parking 2,160 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 63 km in a straight lineCar hire at FAT airport (Fresno)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From March to Maybest 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.
2.5 MW
About 2.6 m³/s falling 97 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 620 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 568 m in 2.8 km. Here the river runs about 385 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 11viewpointsSierra Point, Clark Point, Panorama Point and 8 more
- 5waymarked walking routesJohn Muir Trail, Theodore Solomons Trail, Mist Trail and 2 more
- 2car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 19toilets
- 7information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 7other named waterfalls within 4 kmNevada Fall, Silver Apron, Illilouette Fall and 4 more
- 1caves
- 9campsitesYosemite Valley Backpackers Campground, Little Yosemite Valley Campground, Camp 4 and 6 more
- 3hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmAhwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Valley Lodge
- 4restaurants 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
- Yosemite Valley3.3 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 | 7 | 10 | 14 | 19 | 26 | 30 | 30 | 26 | 20 | 13 | 7 |
| Night °C | -3 | -3 | -1 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 14 | 10 | 5 | 1 | -3 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 116 | 111 | 98 | 62 | 35 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 39 | 61 | 125 |
| Wet days | 10 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 10 |
| Sun h/day | 5.9 | 6.4 | 7.7 | 9.3 | 11.2 | 13.9 | 13.7 | 13.0 | 11.3 | 9.3 | 7.1 | 5.4 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 33 | 33 | 28 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 20 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,538 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 | 16% | 5% | 97% | 159% | 98% | 62% | 23% | 47% | 5% | 0% | 47% | 40% |
| 2021 | 122% | 30% | 67% | 17% | 12% | 92% | 211% | 20% | 20% | 296% | 27% | 214% |
| 2022 | 0% | 5% | 33% | 49% | 3% | 19% | 42% | 331% | 295% | 2% | 151% | 262% |
| 2023 | 264% | 145% | 322% | 1% | 53% | 235% | 15% | 531% | 220% | 10% | 49% | 31% |
| 2024 | 83% | 180% | 154% | 80% | 65% | 46% | 126% | 47% | 85% | 10% | 133% | 43% |
| 2025 | 14% | 173% | 127% | 44% | 12% | 31% | 23% | 400% | 660% | 151% | 156% | 118% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Vernal Fall
United States
- 97 mHeight
- 2.6 m³/sAverage flow
- Mar–MayBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q2620166) · 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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