Iceland 
In numbers.
32m
Height
140m³/s
Average flow
Jun–Jul
Best months
44MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Gullfoss, month by month
It roars from June to July.
The fullest months: from June to July, with the snowmelt.
- 60 m³/sJan
- 49 m³/sFeb
- 47 m³/sMar
- 76 m³/sApr
- 217 m³/sMay
- 417 m³/sJun
- 284 m³/sJul
- 126 m³/sAug
- 139 m³/sSep
- 121 m³/sOct
- 94 m³/sNov
- 92 m³/sDec
From about 47 m³/s in the lowest month to 417 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
Gullfoss is a waterfall on the Hvítá, in Iceland. The water falls 32 m over a front 70 m wide.
Getting there.
- Parking 260 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Reykjavík Domestic Airport (RKV)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 91 km in a straight lineCar hire at RKV airport (Reykjavík)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.
44 MW
About 140 m³/s falling 32 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 15 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 11,000 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 58 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 27 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 4viewpointsGullfoss, Gullfoss Viewing Platform and 2 more
- —waymarked walking routes
- 4car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 1toilets
- 7information boards and visitor centres
- 1bus stops within 1 km
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 1campsitesSkjól
- 3hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHótel Gullfoss, Skálinn, Geysir Hestar
- 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).
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 13 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Night °C | -5 | -5 | -5 | -2 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 0 | -4 | -5 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 182 | 167 | 163 | 132 | 99 | 91 | 116 | 118 | 182 | 152 | 154 | 186 |
| Wet days | 23 | 20 | 22 | 20 | 18 | 18 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 21 | 21 | 22 |
| Sun h/day | 0.9 | 2.6 | 6.2 | 10.3 | 12.0 | 11.2 | 9.2 | 7.5 | 5.2 | 3.4 | 1.3 | 0.7 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 94 | 119 | 141 | 144 | 102 | 22 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 17 | 34 | 61 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (179 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 | 152% | 79% | 102% | 105% | 107% | 116% | 84% | 139% | 135% | 56% | 110% | 69% |
| 2021 | 59% | 66% | 117% | 94% | 42% | 132% | 97% | 92% | 136% | 105% | 143% | 75% |
| 2022 | 156% | 69% | 184% | 61% | 129% | 137% | 122% | 126% | 67% | 82% | 44% | 40% |
| 2023 | 90% | 162% | 34% | 68% | 247% | 146% | 29% | 69% | 103% | 85% | 61% | 85% |
| 2024 | 95% | 73% | 58% | 63% | 131% | 139% | 118% | 116% | 68% | 126% | 120% | 130% |
| 2025 | 92% | 128% | 133% | 69% | 117% | 121% | 134% | 85% | 107% | 97% | 29% | 68% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Gullfoss
Iceland
- 32 mHeight
- 140 m³/sAverage flow
- Jun–JulBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q38519) · 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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