Iceland 
In numbers.
12m
Height
70m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jun–Jul
Best months
8.2MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Goðafoss, month by month
It roars from May to June.
The fullest months: from May to June, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: from December to March.
- 13 m³/sJan
- 8.6 m³/sFeb
- 23 m³/sMar
- 83 m³/sApr
- 224 m³/sMay
- 247 m³/sJun
- 146 m³/sJul
- 86 m³/sAug
- 76 m³/sSep
- 82 m³/sOct
- 52 m³/sNov
- 30 m³/sDec
From about 8.6 m³/s in the lowest month to 247 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to 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.
Waterfall in Iceland
Goðafoss is a waterfall on the Skjálfandafljót, in Iceland. The water falls 12 m over a front 30 m wide.
Getting there.
- Laugarnearest town · 9.2 km in a straight line
- Parking 380 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Akureyri International Airport (AEY)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 24 km in a straight lineCar hire at AEY airport (Akureyri)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From June to Julybest 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.
8.2 MW
About 70 m³/s falling 12 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 2.7 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 2,000 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 45 m in 3.6 km.
What is around.
- 6viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 3car parks
- —swimming spots
- 8picnic sites
- 1toilets
- 2information boards and visitor centres
- 1bus stops within 1 km
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 kmGeitafoss
- —caves
- —campsites
- 3hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmGoðafoss, Fljótsbakki Farm Hotel
- 2restaurants 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
- Laugar9.2 km in a straight line
- Akureyri25 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 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 11 | 8 | 3 | 0 | -1 |
| Night °C | -6 | -6 | -6 | -3 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 3 | -1 | -4 | -6 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 101 | 86 | 93 | 80 | 82 | 67 | 92 | 97 | 120 | 124 | 118 | 113 |
| Wet days | 19 | 17 | 20 | 17 | 16 | 16 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 22 | 20 | 19 |
| Sun h/day | 0.7 | 2.1 | 5.7 | 9.6 | 11.0 | 11.6 | 7.9 | 6.4 | 4.4 | 2.9 | 1.1 | 0.4 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 97 | 116 | 129 | 116 | 59 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 22 | 46 | 72 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (116 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 | 124% | 150% | 98% | 95% | 51% | 81% | 122% | 90% | 123% | 97% | 100% | 174% |
| 2021 | 141% | 79% | 127% | 64% | 46% | 133% | 55% | 41% | 143% | 185% | 103% | 53% |
| 2022 | 67% | 122% | 66% | 70% | 162% | 189% | 106% | 155% | 67% | 144% | 101% | 81% |
| 2023 | 108% | 75% | 109% | 51% | 97% | 86% | 103% | 45% | 140% | 100% | 61% | 65% |
| 2024 | 50% | 92% | 141% | 108% | 47% | 180% | 91% | 176% | 72% | 98% | 64% | 46% |
| 2025 | 124% | 58% | 82% | 117% | 70% | 250% | 69% | 55% | 110% | 56% | 55% | 67% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Goðafoss
Iceland
- 12 mHeight
- 70 m³/sAverage flow
- Jun–JulBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q1137629) · 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
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.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit 
lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit 
mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.You are here
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit 
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit