Chile 
In numbers.
17m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jun–Sep
Best months
92m
Elevation
The water at Salto del Nilahue, month by month
It roars from June to August.
The fullest months: from June to August. The thinnest: from December to March.
- 4.8 m³/sJan
- 3.5 m³/sFeb
- 4.8 m³/sMar
- 9.6 m³/sApr
- 20 m³/sMay
- 30 m³/sJun
- 35 m³/sJul
- 34 m³/sAug
- 25 m³/sSep
- 18 m³/sOct
- 12 m³/sNov
- 7.4 m³/sDec
From about 3.5 m³/s in the lowest month to 35 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to September.
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.
Getting there.
- Parking 200 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Cañal Bajo Carlos Hott Siebert Airport (ZOS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 83 km in a straight lineCar hire at BRC airport (San Carlos de Bariloche)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From June to Septemberbest 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 41 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 37 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpointsSaltos del Nilahue
- —waymarked walking routes
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- 3bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 4campsitesSaltos del Nilahue, Camping Playa Epulafquen, Camping Riñinahue and 1 more
- 1hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHotel Parque Funtangue
- —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 | 24 | 25 | 22 | 17 | 14 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 22 |
| Night °C | 12 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 10 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 38 | 32 | 46 | 71 | 126 | 162 | 147 | 134 | 73 | 70 | 54 | 42 |
| Wet days | 6 | 6 | 9 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 13 | 13 | 10 | 9 |
| Sun h/day | 11.7 | 10.8 | 8.8 | 6.4 | 4.1 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 4.2 | 6.3 | 7.6 | 9.5 | 11.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 14 | 16 | 14 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (92 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 | 103% | 64% | 55% | 109% | 93% | 146% | 157% | 39% | 36% | 27% | 20% | 53% |
| 2021 | 29% | 14% | 33% | 40% | 61% | 53% | 32% | 89% | 25% | 10% | 33% | 36% |
| 2022 | 113% | 91% | 86% | 138% | 37% | 74% | 110% | 50% | 65% | 39% | 8% | 20% |
| 2023 | 19% | 6% | 53% | 61% | 37% | 162% | 108% | 68% | 142% | 58% | 65% | 7% |
| 2024 | 5% | 4% | 78% | 110% | 123% | 127% | 21% | 18% | 145% | 11% | 92% | 22% |
| 2025 | 41% | 35% | 71% | 100% | 71% | 107% | 40% | 27% | 71% | 136% | 48% | 21% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Salto del Nilahue
Chile
- —Height
- 17 m³/sAverage flow
- Jun–SepBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q38218) · 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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