Sao Tome and Principe Waterfall
Cascata de São Nicolau
One of the waterfalls of Sao Tome and Principe.

In numbers.
Mar–May
Dec
Best months
930m
Elevation
The water at Cascata de São Nicolau, month by month
It roars from March to May and from November to December.
The fullest months: from March to May and from November to December. The thinnest: from July to September.
- 74%Jan
- 67%Feb
- 85%Mar
- 100%Apr
- 83%May
- 40%Jun
- 14%Jul
- 5%Aug
- 9%Sep
- 40%Oct
- 76%Nov
- 79%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from March to May and December.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall of São Tomé, São Tomé and Príncipe
Cascata de São Nicolau is a waterfall in Sao Tome and Principe.
Getting there.
- Piedadenearest town · 4.5 km in a straight line
- São Tomé International Airport (TMS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 14 km in a straight lineCar hire at POG airport (Port Gentil)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From March to May and Decemberbest 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 334 m in 2.8 km. Here the river runs about 46 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- —viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- 1information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 kmCascata de Bombaim
- —caves
- —campsites
- 4hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmBelém, Hotel Bombaim, Brice and 1 more
- 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).
Towns nearby
- Piedade4.5 km in a straight line
- Folha Fede6.5 km in a straight line
- Lemos8.3 km in a straight line
- Rosema9.5 km in a straight line
- Changra9.9 km in a straight line
- Almeirim11 km in a straight line
- Agua Porca11 km in a straight line
- Neves12 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 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 21 |
| Night °C | 21 | 21 | 22 | 21 | 21 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 130 | 119 | 167 | 176 | 127 | 44 | 22 | 20 | 41 | 114 | 158 | 134 |
| Wet days | 27 | 24 | 29 | 28 | 24 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 12 | 25 | 29 | 28 |
| Sun h/day | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 5.3 | 5.5 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.1 | 4.8 | 4.4 | 4.7 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (930 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 | 67% | 81% | 98% | 86% | 71% | 133% | 152% | 149% | 115% | 92% | 104% | 74% |
| 2021 | 78% | 91% | 112% | 84% | 111% | 233% | 89% | 209% | 145% | 101% | 90% | 128% |
| 2022 | 70% | 47% | 90% | 93% | 106% | 133% | 101% | 75% | 112% | 172% | 116% | 97% |
| 2023 | 129% | 68% | 102% | 103% | 107% | 69% | 67% | 58% | 37% | 114% | 125% | 99% |
| 2024 | 53% | 91% | 97% | 85% | 115% | 39% | 68% | 61% | 109% | 77% | 101% | 95% |
| 2025 | 85% | 65% | 91% | 86% | 102% | 148% | 113% | 49% | 113% | 43% | 80% | 100% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q99511847) · 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
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves or dark skies?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.