
In numbers.
Oct–Jan
Best months
1,556m
Elevation
The water at Dunsinane Falls, month by month
It roars from November to December.
The fullest months: from November to December.
- 57%Jan
- 34%Feb
- 30%Mar
- 49%Apr
- 56%May
- 41%Jun
- 28%Jul
- 25%Aug
- 36%Sep
- 71%Oct
- 100%Nov
- 93%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from October to January.
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 Nuwara Eliya District of Sri Lanka
Dunsinane Falls is a waterfall in Sri Lanka.
Getting there.
- Nuwara Eliyanearest town · 9.7 km in a straight line
- Parking 2,020 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Bandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 93 km in a straight lineCar hire at CMB airport (Colombo)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From October to Januarybest 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 258 m in 1.5 km. Here the river runs about 105 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
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 kmGerandi Ella Waterfall
- —caves
- —campsites
- 25hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmFriendly Home Stay, Tea Bush Ramboda Hotel by Oak Ray, Ramboda Falls Hotels and 22 more
- 2restaurants 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
- Nuwara Eliya9.7 km in a straight line
- Talawakele9.8 km in a straight line
- Hatton18 km in a straight line
- Gampola23 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 | 20 | 21 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 19 |
| Night °C | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 12 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 108 | 86 | 104 | 175 | 164 | 101 | 82 | 92 | 129 | 234 | 274 | 212 |
| Wet days | 11 | 9 | 12 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 18 | 23 | 23 | 18 |
| Sun h/day | 6.4 | 7.7 | 8.3 | 7.5 | 6.7 | 6.5 | 6.3 | 6.3 | 6.5 | 6.3 | 5.4 | 5.1 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,556 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 | 57% | 31% | 32% | 69% | 165% | 115% | 151% | 133% | 147% | 42% | 106% | 113% |
| 2021 | 178% | 67% | 152% | 87% | 184% | 166% | 201% | 182% | 134% | 145% | 148% | 71% |
| 2022 | 99% | 195% | 80% | 228% | 123% | 78% | 158% | 235% | 62% | 123% | 102% | 116% |
| 2023 | 87% | 145% | 120% | 99% | 115% | 118% | 102% | 87% | 264% | 224% | 161% | 202% |
| 2024 | 247% | 32% | 40% | 60% | 123% | 94% | 95% | 147% | 51% | 58% | 121% | 68% |
| 2025 | 224% | 95% | 241% | 178% | 121% | 92% | 79% | 82% | 122% | 151% | 250% | 82% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q19710937) · 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.



