Serbia 
In numbers.
18m
Height
OpenStreetMap
0.08m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Mar–Jun
Best months
14kW
Water power
estimate
The water at Ripaljka, month by month
It roars from March to May.
The fullest months: from March to May.
- 0.1 m³/sJan
- 0.1 m³/sFeb
- 0.2 m³/sMar
- 0.2 m³/sApr
- 0.2 m³/sMay
- 0.1 m³/sJun
- 0.1 m³/sJul
- 0.0 m³/sAug
- 0.0 m³/sSep
- 0.1 m³/sOct
- 0.1 m³/sNov
- 0.1 m³/sDec
From about 0.03 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.23 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from March to June.
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.
Ripaljka is a waterfall in Serbia. The water falls 18 m.
Getting there.
- Soko Banjanearest town · 2.4 km in a straight line
- Parking 270 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Niš Constantine the Great Airport (INI)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 32 km in a straight lineCar hire at INI airport (Niš)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From March 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.
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.
14 kW
About 0.08 m³/s falling 18 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 4 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 176 m in 2.2 km. Here the river runs about 119 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpointsПараглајдинг полетиште
- 11waymarked walking routesСокобања - Калиновица - Оштра Чука, Сокобања - Кулин врх - Оштра Чука, Око Оштре чуке and 8 more
- 5car parks
- —swimming spots
- 1picnic sites
- 1toilets
- 2information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 2other named waterfalls within 4 kmМала Рипаљка, Ripaljka
- —caves
- —campsites
- 22hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmApartmani Maja Sokobanja, Apartman David, Sobe Mira and 19 more
- 18restaurants 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
- Soko Banja2.4 km in a straight line
- Aleksinac15 km in a straight line
- Boljevac24 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 | 5 | 10 | 16 | 21 | 25 | 29 | 30 | 24 | 17 | 11 | 4 |
| Night °C | -6 | -4 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 11 | 6 | 1 | -4 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 51 | 50 | 58 | 60 | 79 | 74 | 59 | 54 | 50 | 60 | 54 | 56 |
| Wet days | 9 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Sun h/day | 2.5 | 3.6 | 4.9 | 6.3 | 7.3 | 8.8 | 9.7 | 9.1 | 6.5 | 4.9 | 3.3 | 2.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 16 | 15 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 15 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (458 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 | 36% | 139% | 161% | 52% | 110% | 167% | 145% | 324% | 61% | 131% | 16% | 122% |
| 2021 | 323% | 48% | 131% | 86% | 61% | 54% | 124% | 43% | 50% | 124% | 147% | 178% |
| 2022 | 71% | 54% | 36% | 83% | 53% | 95% | 83% | 174% | 181% | 11% | 176% | 117% |
| 2023 | 151% | 53% | 114% | 123% | 89% | 185% | 106% | 122% | 65% | 22% | 288% | 73% |
| 2024 | 73% | 22% | 96% | 79% | 117% | 91% | 32% | 35% | 161% | 38% | 152% | 146% |
| 2025 | 32% | 132% | 118% | 71% | 78% | 8% | 57% | 77% | 81% | 243% | 282% | 48% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Ripaljka
Serbia
- 18 mHeight
- 0.08 m³/sAverage flow
- Mar–JunBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q2154518) · 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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