Canada 
In numbers.
5m
Height
OpenStreetMap
6m
Width
Apr–Jun
Oct
Best months
209m
Elevation
The water at Washboard Falls, month by month
It roars from April to June and in October.
The fullest months: from April to June and October. Below −4 °C on average (from January to February): the falls can partly freeze.
- 54%Jan
- 62%Feb
- 74%Mar
- 98%Apr
- 100%May
- 77%Jun
- 65%Jul
- 51%Aug
- 62%Sep
- 78%Oct
- 69%Nov
- 49%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to June and October.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall in Ontario, Canada
Washboard Falls is a waterfall in Canada. The water falls 5 m over a front 6 m wide.
Getting there.
- Ancasternearest town · 3.3 km in a straight line
- Parking 410 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport (YHM)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 8 km in a straight lineCar hire at YHM airport (Hamilton)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April to June and Octoberbest 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 as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). 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 99 m in 1.6 km.
What is around.
- 2viewpointsCanterbury Falls
- 3waymarked walking routesBruce Trail - Iroquoia section, Hamilton-Brantford Rail Trail, Arteban Road Side Trail
- 218car parks
- —swimming spots
- 3picnic sites
- —toilets
- 3information boards and visitor centres
- 8bus stops within 1 km
- 22other named waterfalls within 4 kmScenic Falls, Mountview Falls, Upper Princess Falls and 19 more
- —caves
- —campsites
- 9hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmDundas Glen Bed & Breakfast, Holiday Inn Express, Visitors Inn and 6 more
- 52restaurants 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
- Ancaster3.3 km in a straight line
- Hamilton8.9 km in a straight line
- Waterdown12 km in a straight line
- Stoney Creek16 km in a straight line
- Binbrook18 km in a straight line
- Burlington19 km in a straight line
- Ohsweken23 km in a straight line
- St. George24 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 | -1 | 0 | 5 | 12 | 19 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 24 | 15 | 8 | 2 |
| Night °C | -8 | -8 | -4 | 1 | 8 | 14 | 17 | 17 | 13 | 6 | 1 | -4 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 50 | 44 | 52 | 68 | 78 | 78 | 86 | 65 | 79 | 77 | 60 | 56 |
| Wet days | 11 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 13 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 12 |
| Sun h/day | 2.5 | 3.3 | 4.9 | 6.0 | 7.3 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 7.8 | 6.7 | 3.9 | 2.8 | 2.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 18 | 16 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 16 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide. 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 | 134% | 63% | 77% | 50% | 51% | 60% | 62% | 70% | 38% | 55% | 58% | 54% |
| 2021 | 34% | 37% | 31% | 51% | 29% | 70% | 68% | 62% | 98% | 81% | 41% | 52% |
| 2022 | 41% | 84% | 54% | 60% | 66% | 48% | 71% | 66% | 42% | 31% | 51% | 61% |
| 2023 | 86% | 82% | 84% | 83% | 33% | 77% | 118% | 113% | 32% | 73% | 54% | 85% |
| 2024 | 106% | 45% | 64% | 96% | 74% | 68% | 83% | 79% | 46% | 31% | 53% | 69% |
| 2025 | 26% | 66% | 58% | 60% | 57% | 51% | 48% | 54% | 37% | 67% | 40% | 66% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Washboard Falls
Canada
- 5 mHeight
- —Average flow
- Apr–Jun, OctBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37869) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| 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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