Kenya 
In numbers.
0.24m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr–Jun
Best months
158m
Elevation
The water at Sheldrick Falls, month by month
It roars in May.
The fullest months: May. The thinnest: from January to March and from July to September.
- 0.2 m³/sJan
- 0.1 m³/sFeb
- 0.2 m³/sMar
- 0.6 m³/sApr
- 0.9 m³/sMay
- 0.5 m³/sJun
- 0.2 m³/sJul
- 0.1 m³/sAug
- 0.1 m³/sSep
- 0.2 m³/sOct
- 0.4 m³/sNov
- 0.3 m³/sDec
From about 0.05 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.91 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April 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.
Waterfall at Shimba Hills National Reserve, Kenia
Sheldrick Falls is a waterfall in Kenya.
Getting there.
- Kwalenearest town · 12 km in a straight line
- Parking 700 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Moi International Airport (MBA)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 33 km in a straight lineCar hire at MBA airport (Mombasa)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April 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 37 m in 1.8 km.
What is around.
- 1viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- 1information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 kmSheldrick waterfalls
- —caves
- 1campsitesProfessional Campsite (Shimba Hills NR)
- —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).
Towns nearby
- Kwale12 km in a straight line
- Ukunda15 km in a straight line
- Gazi18 km in a straight line
- Matuga20 km in a straight line
- Kinango20 km in a straight line
- Msambweni21 km in a straight line
- Sawa Sawa22 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 | 31 | 32 | 31 | 29 | 28 | 27 | 27 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 29 | 30 |
| Night °C | 24 | 24 | 25 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 24 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 35 | 22 | 80 | 154 | 193 | 57 | 28 | 25 | 33 | 93 | 109 | 79 |
| Wet days | 7 | 5 | 16 | 25 | 22 | 12 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 19 | 17 |
| Sun h/day | 8.3 | 8.5 | 8.2 | 7.0 | 6.2 | 6.7 | 6.9 | 7.2 | 8.0 | 8.2 | 8.5 | 8.7 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (158 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 | 291% | 118% | 119% | 136% | 117% | 178% | 164% | 69% | 95% | 41% | 117% | 82% |
| 2021 | 30% | 66% | 73% | 80% | 94% | 99% | 81% | 64% | 41% | 9% | 17% | 237% |
| 2022 | 36% | 84% | 39% | 74% | 58% | 116% | 319% | 117% | 1,157% | 22% | 80% | 47% |
| 2023 | 73% | 17% | 54% | 270% | 231% | 235% | 292% | 384% | 73% | 102% | 369% | 112% |
| 2024 | 138% | 426% | 123% | 177% | 51% | 136% | 131% | 83% | 45% | 32% | 120% | 151% |
| 2025 | 62% | 5% | 82% | 129% | 120% | 209% | 325% | 85% | 55% | 54% | 21% | 56% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Sheldrick Falls
Kenya
- —Height
- 0.24 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr–JunBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q27203461) · 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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