United States 
In numbers.
27m
Height
OpenStreetMap
235m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr–Jul
Best months
62MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Great Falls, month by month
It roars from May to June.
The fullest months: from May to June, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from September to January.
- 106 m³/sJan
- 169 m³/sFeb
- 225 m³/sMar
- 331 m³/sApr
- 477 m³/sMay
- 544 m³/sJun
- 371 m³/sJul
- 202 m³/sAug
- 116 m³/sSep
- 127 m³/sOct
- 93 m³/sNov
- 71 m³/sDec
From about 71 m³/s in the lowest month to 544 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to July.
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.
Series of falls along the Missouri River in Montana
Great Falls is a waterfall in United States. The water falls 27 m.
Getting there.
- Malmstrom Air Force Basenearest town · 8.5 km in a straight line
- Parking 310 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Great Falls International Airport (GTF)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 21 km in a straight lineCar hire at GTF airport (Great Falls)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April to Julybest 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 as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
62 MW
About 235 m³/s falling 27 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 21 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 15,500 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 45 m in 3.1 km. Here the river runs about 93 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpoints
- 1waymarked walking routesNorth Shore Rivers Edge Trail
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- 1picnic sites
- 2toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 1campsites
- —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
- Malmstrom Air Force Base8.5 km in a straight line
- Great Falls15 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 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 14 | 20 | 25 | 31 | 29 | 23 | 14 | 7 | 1 |
| Night °C | -7 | -7 | -3 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 16 | 14 | 9 | 2 | -2 | -7 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 24 | 25 | 28 | 54 | 69 | 80 | 32 | 35 | 41 | 36 | 25 | 24 |
| Wet days | 7 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 |
| Sun h/day | 4.4 | 6.1 | 6.7 | 7.4 | 8.6 | 10.2 | 12.2 | 10.2 | 7.9 | 5.9 | 4.3 | 3.5 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 17 | 16 | 13 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 14 | 17 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (896 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 | 83% | 112% | 96% | 76% | 110% | 174% | 82% | 35% | 54% | 146% | 100% | 48% |
| 2021 | 58% | 110% | 54% | 69% | 170% | 23% | 76% | 187% | 20% | 37% | 63% | 122% |
| 2022 | 91% | 87% | 104% | 71% | 49% | 73% | 214% | 109% | 127% | 146% | 131% | 138% |
| 2023 | 129% | 124% | 127% | 120% | 117% | 139% | 33% | 118% | 163% | 133% | 82% | 44% |
| 2024 | 86% | 165% | 85% | 89% | 133% | 84% | 65% | 142% | 185% | 17% | 93% | 89% |
| 2025 | 132% | 125% | 112% | 51% | 92% | 76% | 180% | 124% | 52% | 79% | 105% | 158% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Great Falls
United States
- 27 mHeight
- 235 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr–JulBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37774) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| 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.
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