France 
In numbers.
0.42m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Feb–Mar
Nov–Dec
Best months
97m
Elevation
The water at Puits d'Enfer, month by month
It roars from November to March.
The fullest months: from November to March.
- 0.8 m³/sJan
- 0.6 m³/sFeb
- 0.6 m³/sMar
- 0.5 m³/sApr
- 0.4 m³/sMay
- 0.3 m³/sJun
- 0.2 m³/sJul
- 0.1 m³/sAug
- 0.1 m³/sSep
- 0.4 m³/sOct
- 0.7 m³/sNov
- 0.8 m³/sDec
From about 0.11 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.81 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from February to March and from November to December.
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.
Puits d'Enfer is a waterfall in France.
Getting there.
- Exireuilnearest town · 0.9 km in a straight line
- Parking 280 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Poitiers-Biard Airport (PIS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 41 km in a straight lineCar hire at LRH airport (La Rochelle)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From February to March and from November to Decemberbest 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 50 m in 2.4 km. Here the river runs about 31 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 53car parks
- —swimming spots
- 8picnic sites
- 4toilets
- 4information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 1campsitesCamping municipal du Panier Fleuri
- 8hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHôtel Saint-Martin, Gîte Artiste, Le Loft and 5 more
- 11restaurants 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
- Exireuil0.9 km in a straight line
- Nanteuil1.8 km in a straight line
- Saivres4.2 km in a straight line
- Azay-le-Brûlé5.7 km in a straight line
- La Mothe-Saint-Héray9.1 km in a straight line
- Pamproux10 km in a straight line
- La Crèche11 km in a straight line
- Cherveux14 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 | 8 | 9 | 12 | 16 | 19 | 24 | 26 | 26 | 23 | 18 | 12 | 8 |
| Night °C | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 2 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 75 | 56 | 67 | 56 | 71 | 61 | 50 | 50 | 44 | 78 | 78 | 81 |
| Wet days | 13 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 13 | 14 | 13 |
| Sun h/day | 2.2 | 3.8 | 5.2 | 6.6 | 7.2 | 8.5 | 8.8 | 7.9 | 7.1 | 4.4 | 2.8 | 2.1 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 5 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (97 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 | 84% | 113% | 139% | 91% | 103% | 109% | 7% | 74% | 105% | 154% | 32% | 156% |
| 2021 | 101% | 119% | 29% | 22% | 108% | 163% | 90% | 42% | 66% | 42% | 43% | 104% |
| 2022 | 40% | 49% | 39% | 73% | 23% | 119% | 34% | 57% | 98% | 67% | 92% | 64% |
| 2023 | 103% | 42% | 119% | 53% | 67% | 124% | 67% | 59% | 148% | 167% | 155% | 119% |
| 2024 | 62% | 160% | 152% | 92% | 169% | 100% | 41% | 62% | 205% | 152% | 61% | 51% |
| 2025 | 123% | 43% | 31% | 66% | 16% | 21% | 40% | 48% | 65% | 41% | 46% | 32% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Puits d'Enfer
France
- —Height
- 0.42 m³/sAverage flow
- Feb–Mar, Nov–DecBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q56099814) · 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.
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