United States Waterfall UNESCO World Heritage
Waterwheel Falls
One of the waterfalls of United States.
In numbers.
2.2m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr–May
Best months
2,066m
Elevation
The water at Waterwheel Falls, month by month
It roars from March to April.
The fullest months: from March to April, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from July to November.
- 2.0 m³/sJan
- 2.8 m³/sFeb
- 3.1 m³/sMar
- 3.6 m³/sApr
- 2.7 m³/sMay
- 1.5 m³/sJun
- 0.9 m³/sJul
- 0.7 m³/sAug
- 0.7 m³/sSep
- 0.9 m³/sOct
- 1.2 m³/sNov
- 2.1 m³/sDec
From about 0.66 m³/s in the lowest month to 3.6 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April 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
Waterwheel Falls is a waterfall in United States. It lies within Yosemite National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Yosemite Valleynearest town · 23 km in a straight line
- Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 64 km in a straight lineCar hire at FAT airport (Fresno)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April 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.
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 332 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 275 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpointsWaterwheel Falls viewpoint
- 1waymarked walking routesGrand Canyon of the Tuolumne Trail
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 6other named waterfalls within 4 kmTuolumne Falls, California Falls, LeConte Falls and 3 more
- —caves
- 1campsitesGlen Aulin High Sierra Camp
- —hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
- —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
- Yosemite Valley23 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 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 16 | 23 | 27 | 27 | 23 | 16 | 9 | 3 |
| Night °C | -7 | -7 | -5 | -2 | 3 | 7 | 12 | 11 | 7 | 2 | -3 | -7 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 103 | 101 | 90 | 56 | 37 | 11 | 14 | 9 | 9 | 38 | 61 | 118 |
| Wet days | 11 | 11 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 11 |
| Sun h/day | 6.5 | 6.9 | 7.8 | 9.5 | 11.1 | 13.6 | 13.1 | 12.7 | 11.3 | 9.5 | 7.2 | 5.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 44 | 45 | 40 | 17 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 26 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (2,066 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 | 23% | 3% | 89% | 156% | 83% | 129% | 46% | 73% | 10% | 0% | 58% | 48% |
| 2021 | 132% | 32% | 60% | 22% | 44% | 137% | 270% | 24% | 24% | 333% | 27% | 200% |
| 2022 | 0% | 5% | 24% | 61% | 7% | 47% | 49% | 303% | 293% | 9% | 133% | 261% |
| 2023 | 265% | 146% | 314% | 5% | 102% | 263% | 9% | 420% | 248% | 15% | 63% | 27% |
| 2024 | 90% | 175% | 182% | 70% | 63% | 76% | 201% | 151% | 190% | 36% | 124% | 54% |
| 2025 | 21% | 178% | 121% | 52% | 20% | 66% | 42% | 446% | 424% | 156% | 139% | 117% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Waterwheel Falls
United States
- —Height
- 2.2 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr–MayBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q38230) · 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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