Laos 
In numbers.
153m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jul–Oct
Best months
322m
Elevation
The water at Tat Sae Waterfalls, month by month
It roars from August to September.
The fullest months: from August to September. The thinnest: from November to May.
- 28 m³/sJan
- 24 m³/sFeb
- 31 m³/sMar
- 56 m³/sApr
- 127 m³/sMay
- 193 m³/sJun
- 351 m³/sJul
- 474 m³/sAug
- 438 m³/sSep
- 274 m³/sOct
- 110 m³/sNov
- 43 m³/sDec
From about 24 m³/s in the lowest month to 474 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from July to October.
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.
- Luang Prabangnearest town · 9.0 km in a straight line
- Parking 1,250 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Luang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 9 km in a straight lineCar hire at NNT airport (Nan Airport)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From July to Octoberbest 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 87 m in 1.9 km. Here the river runs about 20 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 3viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 1toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km2nd Waterfall
- 1caves
- —campsites
- 9hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmZen Namkhan Boutique Resort, Lao Spirit Resort, Shangri Lao and 6 more
- 7restaurants 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
- Luang Prabang9.0 km in a straight line
- Ban Xiang-Ngeun10 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 | 29 | 32 | 34 | 36 | 35 | 34 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 30 | 28 |
| Night °C | 15 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 23 | 21 | 18 | 15 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 14 | 6 | 29 | 60 | 114 | 122 | 211 | 222 | 120 | 51 | 22 | 11 |
| Wet days | 2 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 19 | 20 | 24 | 24 | 18 | 10 | 5 | 2 |
| Sun h/day | 6.1 | 7.1 | 6.2 | 6.5 | 6.2 | 4.5 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 5.5 | 5.9 | 6.5 | 5.9 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (322 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 | 2% | 5% | 109% | 326% | 149% | 155% | 83% | 189% | 98% | 126% | 24% | 0% |
| 2021 | 42% | 598% | 103% | 309% | 110% | 177% | 106% | 115% | 160% | 149% | 222% | 29% |
| 2022 | 352% | 1,769% | 480% | 269% | 185% | 126% | 118% | 114% | 85% | 46% | 219% | 72% |
| 2023 | 4% | 14% | 73% | 26% | 81% | 84% | 57% | 91% | 71% | 110% | 47% | 37% |
| 2024 | 29% | 334% | 60% | 39% | 95% | 158% | 47% | 76% | 163% | 53% | 6% | 15% |
| 2025 | 0% | 176% | 18% | 96% | 67% | 136% | 159% | 63% | 90% | 44% | 75% | 141% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Tat Sae Waterfalls
Laos
- —Height
- 153 m³/sAverage flow
- Jul–OctBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q7687776) · 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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