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Canada Canada Waterfall

Churchill Falls

A 75 m drop.

When to go

Bowdoin Canyon 02
Cephas · CC BY-SA 4.0

In numbers.

75m

Height

1.3m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Jun–Aug

Best months

934kW

Water power

estimate

The water at Churchill Falls, month by month

It roars from May to June.

The fullest months: from May to June, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from December to March. Below −4 °C on average (from November to April): the falls can partly freeze.

  1. 0.7 m³/sJan
  2. 0.7 m³/sFeb
  3. 0.9 m³/sMar
  4. 1.5 m³/sApr
  5. 3.1 m³/sMay
  6. 2.9 m³/sJun
  7. 2.3 m³/sJul
  8. 1.9 m³/sAug
  9. 1.6 m³/sSep
  10. 1.5 m³/sOct
  11. 1.3 m³/sNov
  12. 0.9 m³/sDec
high water best months to go may freeze

From about 0.67 m³/s in the lowest month to 3.1 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to August.

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 on the Churchill River in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Churchill Falls is a waterfall in Canada. The water falls 75 m.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there.

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.

75 mChurchillFalls1.8 ma person9.0 ma house56 mTower of Pisa93 mStatue ofLiberty

Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.

934 kW

About 1.3 m³/s falling 75 m: the power of the water as it drops.

  • enough to power about 233 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.

Churchill Falls seen from above (Sentinel-2) N 2 km

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The Churchill River through the falls
300 m350 m400 mChurchill Falls-1.5 km-1 km-0.5 km0+0.5 km+1 km+1.5 km← upstreamdownstream →

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.

The valley below the falls
−690 m+690 m

Around the falls the river drops 139 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 120 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

  • 1viewpoints
  • —waymarked walking routes
  • 1car parks
  • —swimming spots
  • —picnic sites
  • —toilets
  • —information boards and visitor centres
  • —bus stops within 1 km
  • —other named waterfalls within 4 km
  • —caves
  • —campsites
  • —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).

Weather

The weather, month by month.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C-17-15-8-17151817124-5-13
Night °C-28-27-20-10-1610104-2-12-22
Rain & snow (mm)554450688310312612096999166
Wet days12911131618212016171413
Sun h/day3.96.58.18.77.86.75.94.84.22.61.52.4
Snow on the ground (cm)73869284242004152953

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (333 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Churchill Falls 01
Cephas · CC BY-SA 4.0
Churchill Falls GS-1
Martin Lopatka · CC BY-SA 2.0
Churchill Falls GS-2
Martin Lopatka · CC BY-SA 2.0

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.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
202051%93%101%77%116%149%79%91%96%107%80%172%
202156%111%197%174%157%144%66%100%65%88%67%113%
2022156%96%403%842%393%88%137%78%139%65%71%93%
202363%76%90%44%69%92%107%94%98%75%62%104%
202495%117%136%95%166%74%78%58%59%85%80%118%
202579%87%124%121%80%86%112%80%87%45%97%102%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Churchill Falls

Canada

  • 75 mHeight
  • 1.3 m³/sAverage flow
  • Jun–AugBest months

Churchill River

Canada

  • —Height
  • —Average flow
  • Jun–AugBest months

See the guide

Smallwood Reservoir

Canada

  • —Height
  • —Average flow
  • Jun–AugBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q37799) · CC0
River flow and catchmentHydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0
ClimateNASA POWER, 1991–2020
Relief, river profile, 3D modelCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Paths, viewpoints, parking© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX 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.

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lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.You are here
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit
cavesCavernyasEvery cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.Coming soonVisit
dark skiesDarkskyasWhere the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Coming soonVisit