DR Congo 
In numbers.
39,525m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Feb–May
Best months
64m
Elevation
The water at Inga Falls, month by month
It roars from December to May.
The fullest months: from December to May. The thinnest: from August to October.
- 49,008 m³/sJan
- 49,401 m³/sFeb
- 50,217 m³/sMar
- 51,345 m³/sApr
- 51,006 m³/sMay
- 45,685 m³/sJun
- 38,836 m³/sJul
- 33,305 m³/sAug
- 30,423 m³/sSep
- 33,713 m³/sOct
- 40,692 m³/sNov
- 46,432 m³/sDec
From about 30,423 m³/s in the lowest month to 51,345 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from February to May.
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 Congo River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Inga Falls is a waterfall on the River Congo, in DR Congo.
Getting there.
- Parking 1,070 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Mbanza Congo Airport (SSY)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 108 km in a straight line
- From February to Maybest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
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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 14 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 68 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpointsBelvedere Inga
- —waymarked walking routes
- 3car 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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 31 | 31 | 31 | 30 | 31 | 31 | 32 | 32 | 34 | 33 | 31 | 30 |
| Night °C | 23 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 23 | 21 | 20 | 20 | 22 | 23 | 23 | 23 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 125 | 129 | 181 | 170 | 126 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 25 | 108 | 173 | 162 |
| Wet days | 23 | 22 | 26 | 26 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 19 | 28 | 26 |
| Sun h/day | 4.5 | 4.8 | 5.7 | 5.3 | 4.0 | 3.4 | 3.3 | 2.5 | 2.0 | 2.1 | 4.0 | 3.7 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (64 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 | 154% | 107% | 97% | 74% | 138% | 382% | — | 42% | 126% | 89% | 131% | 76% |
| 2021 | 78% | 79% | 92% | 99% | 57% | 32% | — | 30% | 91% | 50% | 108% | 93% |
| 2022 | 113% | 61% | 99% | 172% | 125% | 146% | — | 42% | 52% | 109% | 161% | 91% |
| 2023 | 104% | 70% | 109% | 129% | 103% | 111% | — | 17% | 99% | 122% | 116% | 143% |
| 2024 | 41% | 102% | 72% | 63% | 56% | 157% | — | 17% | 71% | 63% | 98% | 107% |
| 2025 | 63% | 93% | 82% | 130% | 184% | 257% | — | 11% | 90% | 58% | 83% | 81% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Inga Falls
DR Congo
- —Height
- 39,525 m³/sAverage flow
- Feb–MayBest months
Livingstone Falls
Republic of the Congo
- —Height
- 42,000 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr, Nov–JanBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q19558) · 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, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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Every viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.Coming soonVisit 
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