Iceland 
In numbers.
44m
Height
200m³/s
Average flow
Jun–Aug
Best months
86MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Dettifoss, month by month
It roars from May to July.
The fullest months: from May to July, with the snowmelt.
- 97 m³/sJan
- 30 m³/sFeb
- 41 m³/sMar
- 197 m³/sApr
- 510 m³/sMay
- 568 m³/sJun
- 430 m³/sJul
- 222 m³/sAug
- 199 m³/sSep
- 247 m³/sOct
- 257 m³/sNov
- 193 m³/sDec
From about 30 m³/s in the lowest month to 568 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to August.
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
Dettifoss is a waterfall on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum, in Iceland. The water falls 44 m over a front 100 m wide. It lies within Vatnajökull National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Parking 580 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Vopnafjörður Airport (VPN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 71 km in a straight lineCar hire at AEY airport (Akureyri)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From June to Augustbest 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 from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
86 MW
About 200 m³/s falling 44 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 29 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 21,600 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 43 m in 2.4 km. Here the river runs about 52 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 9viewpointsHafragilsfoss and 8 more
- 1waymarked walking routesHafragilsfoss und Dettifoss
- 5car parks
- —swimming spots
- 7picnic sites
- 2toilets
- 4information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 2other named waterfalls within 4 kmSelfoss, Hafragilsfoss
- —caves
- 1campsites
- —hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
- 1restaurants 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 | -2 | -1 | -1 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 12 | 11 | 7 | 3 | 0 | -2 |
| Night °C | -7 | -7 | -6 | -4 | -1 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 2 | -1 | -5 | -6 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 105 | 85 | 99 | 83 | 86 | 69 | 93 | 100 | 127 | 131 | 127 | 122 |
| Wet days | 20 | 17 | 20 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 21 | 20 | 20 |
| Sun h/day | 0.0 | 0.4 | 2.2 | 4.6 | 6.0 | 7.8 | 5.6 | 4.6 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 72 | 86 | 96 | 81 | 34 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 15 | 30 | 51 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide. 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 | 122% | 155% | 106% | 84% | 54% | 68% | 149% | 52% | 147% | 111% | 111% | 166% |
| 2021 | 142% | 89% | 119% | 64% | 50% | 121% | 56% | 38% | 124% | 185% | 96% | 43% |
| 2022 | 66% | 127% | 59% | 86% | 141% | 197% | 166% | 184% | 63% | 186% | 105% | 60% |
| 2023 | 116% | 94% | 89% | 55% | 88% | 84% | 129% | 40% | 121% | 117% | 46% | 57% |
| 2024 | 54% | 97% | 132% | 91% | 45% | 234% | 85% | 204% | 91% | 85% | 61% | 48% |
| 2025 | 105% | 71% | 77% | 108% | 69% | 297% | 71% | 73% | 90% | 50% | 46% | 57% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Dettifoss
Iceland
- 44 mHeight
- 200 m³/sAverage flow
- Jun–AugBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q210280) · 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.
The family
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