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Iceland Iceland Waterfall

Dynkur

A 38 m drop.

When to go

Dynkur seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data), CC BY 4.0, with relief shading from Copernicus WorldDEM-30

In numbers.

38m

Height

OpenStreetMap

0.24m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Jul

Best months

91kW

Water power

estimate

The water at Dynkur, month by month

It roars from May to June.

The fullest months: from May to June, with the snowmelt. Below −4 °C on average (from December to February): the falls can partly freeze.

  1. 0.1 m³/sJan
  2. 0.1 m³/sFeb
  3. 0.1 m³/sMar
  4. 0.2 m³/sApr
  5. 0.5 m³/sMay
  6. 0.7 m³/sJun
  7. 0.4 m³/sJul
  8. 0.2 m³/sAug
  9. 0.2 m³/sSep
  10. 0.2 m³/sOct
  11. 0.2 m³/sNov
  12. 0.2 m³/sDec
high water best months to go may freeze

From about 0.10 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.69 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: July.

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.

Dynkur is a waterfall in Iceland. The water falls 38 m.

Getting there.

Plan your visit

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How big is it?

How big it really is.

38 mDynkur1.8 ma person9.0 ma house56 mTower of Pisa

Height of the drop as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.

91 kW

About 0.24 m³/s falling 38 m: the power of the water as it drops.

  • enough to power about 23 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.

Dynkur seen from above (Sentinel-2) N 2 km

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The Þjórsá through the falls
350 m400 m450 mDynkur-1.5 km-1 km-0.5 km0+0.5 km+1 km+1.5 km← upstreamdownstream →

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.

The valley below the falls
−690 m+690 m

Around the falls the river drops 101 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 51 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

  • —viewpoints
  • —waymarked walking routes
  • —car parks
  • —swimming spots
  • —picnic sites
  • —toilets
  • —information boards and visitor centres
  • —bus stops within 1 km
  • 1other named waterfalls within 4 kmGljúfurleitarfoss
  • —caves
  • —campsites
  • —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).

Weather

The weather, month by month.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C-2-2-124810962-1-2
Night °C-7-7-6-403542-2-5-7
Rain & snow (mm)1591451421158577100101158133135163
Wet days222022191817202022212022
Sun h/day0.92.66.210.312.011.29.27.55.23.41.30.7
Snow on the ground (cm)831061251227414128163154

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (421 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.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2020152%77%103%101%109%108%82%138%138%59%112%65%
202156%70%113%95%40%139%93%91%138%108%142%79%
2022154%69%183%60%140%143%120%130%64%80%49%41%
202391%166%40%69%241%137%31%67%106%82%59%88%
202497%73%62%63%126%147%109%121%69%125%118%130%
202596%135%135%74%121%120%128%86%113%96%29%67%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Dynkur

Iceland

  • 38 mHeight
  • 0.24 m³/sAverage flow
  • JulBest months

Háifoss

Iceland

  • 122 mHeight
  • —Average flow
  • Jun–AugBest months

See the guide

Gullfoss

Iceland

  • 32 mHeight
  • 140 m³/sAverage flow
  • Jun–JulBest months

See the guide

Granni

Iceland

  • —Height
  • —Average flow
  • Jun–AugBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q25591513) · CC0
Height of the drop© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
River flow and catchmentHydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0
ClimateNASA POWER, 1991–2020
Relief, river profile, 3D modelCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Paths, viewpoints, parking© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX 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

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.