Iceland 
In numbers.
9.7m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jul
Best months
601m
Elevation
The water at Gýgjarfoss, 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 March): the falls can partly freeze.
- 2.5 m³/sJan
- 0.8 m³/sFeb
- 0.8 m³/sMar
- 6.4 m³/sApr
- 24 m³/sMay
- 36 m³/sJun
- 21 m³/sJul
- 6.8 m³/sAug
- 9.2 m³/sSep
- 8.2 m³/sOct
- 6.5 m³/sNov
- 6.1 m³/sDec
From about 0.80 m³/s in the lowest month to 36 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.
Waterfall in Iceland
Gýgjarfoss is a waterfall on the Jökulfall á Kili, in Iceland.
Getting there.
- Parking 120 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Akureyri International Airport (AEY)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 123 km in a straight lineCar hire at AEY airport (Akureyri)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- 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.
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. Here the river runs about 25 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 2viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- 1picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 1campsitesKerlingarfjöll
- 2hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHighland Base
- —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 | -3 | -3 | -2 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 5 | 1 | -2 | -3 |
| Night °C | -8 | -8 | -7 | -5 | -2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | -3 | -6 | -8 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 159 | 145 | 142 | 115 | 85 | 77 | 100 | 101 | 158 | 133 | 135 | 163 |
| Wet days | 22 | 20 | 22 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 20 | 20 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 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) | 83 | 106 | 125 | 122 | 74 | 14 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 16 | 31 | 54 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (601 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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 152% | 77% | 103% | 101% | 109% | 108% | 82% | 138% | 138% | 59% | 112% | 65% |
| 2021 | 56% | 70% | 113% | 95% | 40% | 139% | 93% | 91% | 138% | 108% | 142% | 79% |
| 2022 | 154% | 69% | 183% | 60% | 140% | 143% | 120% | 130% | 64% | 80% | 49% | 41% |
| 2023 | 91% | 166% | 40% | 69% | 241% | 137% | 31% | 67% | 106% | 82% | 59% | 88% |
| 2024 | 97% | 73% | 62% | 63% | 126% | 147% | 109% | 121% | 69% | 125% | 118% | 130% |
| 2025 | 96% | 135% | 135% | 74% | 121% | 120% | 128% | 86% | 113% | 96% | 29% | 67% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Gýgjarfoss
Iceland
- —Height
- 9.7 m³/sAverage flow
- JulBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q123371510) · 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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