United States 
In numbers.
28m
Height
217m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr–Jun
Oct
Best months
59MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Cohoes Falls, month by month
It roars from February to December.
It carries water fairly evenly through the year. Below −4 °C on average (from January to February): the falls can partly freeze.
- 97 m³/sJan
- 190 m³/sFeb
- 372 m³/sMar
- 645 m³/sApr
- 729 m³/sMay
- 625 m³/sJun
- 365 m³/sJul
- 225 m³/sAug
- 146 m³/sSep
- 468 m³/sOct
- 273 m³/sNov
- 313 m³/sDec
From about 97 m³/s in the lowest month to 729 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to June and October.
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
Cohoes Falls is a waterfall in United States. The water falls 28 m over a front 305 m wide.
Getting there.
- Cohoesnearest town · 1.7 km in a straight line
- Parking 260 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Albany International Airport (ALB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 9 km in a straight lineCar hire at ALB airport (Albany)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 from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
59 MW
About 217 m³/s falling 28 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 20 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 14,900 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 34 m in 2.9 km. Here the river runs about 54 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 5viewpoints
- 3waymarked walking routesMohawk-Hudson Bike-Hike Trail (hike), Champlain Valley Trail (Albany to Waterford), Erie Canalway Trail (Niskayuna to Green Island)
- 85car parks
- —swimming spots
- 11picnic sites
- —toilets
- 7information boards and visitor centres
- 1bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- —campsites
- 15hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmQuality Inn & Suites Albany Airport, La Quinta Inn & Suites Latham Albany Airport, Microtel Inn by Wyndham Albany Airport and 12 more
- 32restaurants 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
- Cohoes1.7 km in a straight line
- Waterford2.3 km in a straight line
- Green Island5.1 km in a straight line
- Latham6.1 km in a straight line
- Watervliet6.5 km in a straight line
- Troy6.8 km in a straight line
- Clifton Park10 km in a straight line
- Menands11 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 | 1 | 6 | 14 | 21 | 25 | 28 | 27 | 24 | 16 | 9 | 2 |
| Night °C | -10 | -9 | -4 | 2 | 9 | 14 | 17 | 16 | 12 | 6 | 0 | -6 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 69 | 68 | 80 | 88 | 99 | 120 | 115 | 110 | 99 | 116 | 80 | 98 |
| Wet days | 10 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 14 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 11 |
| Sun h/day | 3.1 | 4.2 | 5.4 | 6.2 | 6.7 | 7.4 | 8.1 | 7.6 | 6.7 | 4.1 | 3.4 | 2.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 17 | 17 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 16 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (18 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 | 76% | 112% | 100% | 111% | 65% | 46% | 88% | 120% | 81% | 72% | 122% | 88% |
| 2021 | 81% | 82% | 57% | 122% | 88% | 75% | 225% | 96% | 144% | 136% | 85% | 85% |
| 2022 | 54% | 146% | 129% | 134% | 73% | 60% | 78% | 78% | 150% | 61% | 125% | 113% |
| 2023 | 154% | 65% | 142% | 118% | 58% | 106% | 208% | 136% | 98% | 105% | 76% | 172% |
| 2024 | 186% | 32% | 214% | 131% | 90% | 122% | 93% | 130% | 45% | 36% | 100% | 101% |
| 2025 | 55% | 117% | 93% | 118% | 217% | 78% | 78% | 33% | 88% | 105% | 96% | 89% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Cohoes Falls
United States
- 28 mHeight
- 217 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr–Jun, OctBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37992) · 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
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.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit 
lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit 
mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.You are here
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit 
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit 
caves
Every cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.Coming soonVisit 
dark skies
Where the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Coming soonVisit