Canada 
In numbers.
May–Jun
Best months
660m
Elevation
The water at McDiarmid Falls, month by month
It roars in May.
The fullest months: May, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from August to September and from December to February. Below −4 °C on average (from December to February): the falls can partly freeze.
- 9%Jan
- 6%Feb
- 27%Mar
- 70%Apr
- 100%May
- 72%Jun
- 39%Jul
- 20%Aug
- 23%Sep
- 29%Oct
- 34%Nov
- 15%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to June.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Getting there.
- Clearwaternearest town · 23 km in a straight line
- Kamloops John Moose Fulton Field Regional Airport (YKA)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 130 km in a straight lineCar hire at YKA airport (Kamloops)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to Junebest 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 53 m in 3.5 km. Here the river runs about 142 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 2viewpointsMoul Falls
- —waymarked walking routes
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 5other named waterfalls within 4 kmMoul Falls, Hemp Falls, McDiarmid Falls and 2 more
- —caves
- 1campsitesTrophy Mountain Buffalo Ranch
- 4hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmAcross the Creek Cabins, Wells Gray Guest Ranch, Birchwood Bed and Breakfast and 1 more
- —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
- Clearwater23 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 | -1 | 3 | 7 | 16 | 20 | 24 | 23 | 18 | 9 | 1 | -4 |
| Night °C | -10 | -11 | -6 | 0 | 6 | 10 | 13 | 12 | 8 | 2 | -6 | -11 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 91 | 64 | 84 | 66 | 72 | 97 | 76 | 57 | 76 | 99 | 103 | 78 |
| Wet days | 18 | 15 | 18 | 15 | 15 | 18 | 15 | 12 | 12 | 16 | 19 | 17 |
| Sun h/day | 1.6 | 3.9 | 4.2 | 6.2 | 7.4 | 6.0 | 7.5 | 7.2 | 4.9 | 2.7 | 0.9 | 1.3 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 74 | 90 | 92 | 58 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 13 | 25 | 50 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (660 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 | 218% | 156% | 106% | 82% | 129% | 135% | 173% | 82% | 95% | 182% | 115% | 120% |
| 2021 | 127% | 164% | 67% | 73% | 105% | 61% | 30% | 122% | 117% | 106% | 158% | 119% |
| 2022 | 148% | 150% | 110% | 86% | 103% | 137% | 64% | 140% | 50% | 45% | 65% | 122% |
| 2023 | 87% | 182% | 49% | 105% | 117% | 82% | 49% | 122% | 65% | 59% | 69% | 139% |
| 2024 | 134% | 174% | 86% | 130% | 128% | 87% | 51% | 154% | 127% | 151% | 112% | 157% |
| 2025 | 71% | 92% | 147% | 89% | 113% | 89% | 142% | 163% | 83% | 94% | 92% | 199% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
McDiarmid Falls
Canada
- —Height
- —Average flow
- May–JunBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q38085) · 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
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