Iceland 
In numbers.
0.37m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jun–Sep
Best months
198m
Elevation
The water at Gjárfoss, month by month
It roars from September to May.
It carries water fairly evenly through the year.
- 0.9 m³/sJan
- 0.9 m³/sFeb
- 0.8 m³/sMar
- 0.8 m³/sApr
- 0.8 m³/sMay
- 0.5 m³/sJun
- 0.2 m³/sJul
- 0.2 m³/sAug
- 0.6 m³/sSep
- 0.6 m³/sOct
- 0.7 m³/sNov
- 0.9 m³/sDec
From about 0.18 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.92 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.
Waterfall in Iceland
Gjárfoss is a waterfall in Iceland.
Getting there.
- Parking 250 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Reykjavík Domestic Airport (RKV)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 107 km in a straight lineCar hire at RKV airport (Reykjavík)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 67 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 28 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 3viewpointsGjáin í Þjórsárdal
- —waymarked walking routes
- 3car parks
- —swimming spots
- 5picnic sites
- 1toilets
- 1information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- 3caves
- —campsites
- 2hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHólaskógur
- —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 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| Night °C | -5 | -5 | -4 | -1 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 0 | -3 | -5 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 192 | 175 | 169 | 130 | 96 | 92 | 111 | 119 | 183 | 156 | 162 | 194 |
| Wet days | 23 | 21 | 22 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 21 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| Sun h/day | 0.9 | 2.6 | 6.3 | 10.2 | 11.9 | 11.0 | 9.1 | 7.4 | 5.2 | 3.4 | 1.3 | 0.7 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 39 | 46 | 53 | 43 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 18 | 26 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (198 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 | 135% | 89% | 101% | 103% | 117% | 128% | 79% | 137% | 118% | 55% | 101% | 77% |
| 2021 | 52% | 75% | 93% | 91% | 77% | 130% | 93% | 75% | 124% | 94% | 127% | 76% |
| 2022 | 144% | 89% | 181% | 72% | 113% | 119% | 124% | 128% | 69% | 70% | 76% | 38% |
| 2023 | 89% | 141% | 32% | 102% | 223% | 137% | 22% | 75% | 101% | 96% | 61% | 76% |
| 2024 | 93% | 72% | 68% | 67% | 122% | 122% | 116% | 130% | 61% | 90% | 104% | 122% |
| 2025 | 90% | 127% | 110% | 70% | 108% | 114% | 129% | 104% | 99% | 95% | 36% | 79% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Gjárfoss
Iceland
- —Height
- 0.37 m³/sAverage flow
- Jun–SepBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q9268485) · 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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