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Iceland Iceland Waterfall

Hengifoss

A 128 m drop.

When to go

Hengifoss 24
Rémih · CC BY-SA 4.0

In numbers.

128m

Height

Jun–Aug

Best months

441m

Elevation

The water at Hengifoss, 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. 55%Jan
  2. 43%Feb
  3. 44%Mar
  4. 66%Apr
  5. 100%May
  6. 84%Jun
  7. 64%Jul
  8. 53%Aug
  9. 55%Sep
  10. 65%Oct
  11. 68%Nov
  12. 60%Dec
high water best months to go may freeze

Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to August.

Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.

Waterfall in Iceland

Hengifoss is a waterfall in Iceland. The water falls 128 m.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there.

Plan your visit

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How big is it?

How big it really is.

128 mHengifoss1.8 ma person93 mStatue ofLiberty96 mBig Ben139 mGreat Pyramid

Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.

Seen from the sky.

8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.

Hengifoss 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 Stekkalækur through the falls
200 m400 mHengifoss-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.

Around the falls the river drops 422 m in 3.5 km.

What is around.

  • 6viewpoints
  • 1waymarked walking routesHengifoss
  • —car parks
  • —swimming spots
  • —picnic sites
  • —toilets
  • 2information boards and visitor centres
  • —bus stops within 1 km
  • 2other named waterfalls within 4 kmLitlanesfoss
  • —caves
  • 1campsitesAtlavík
  • 1hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHengifosslodge
  • 1restaurants 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-2-2-1149111072-1-2
Night °C-8-8-7-5-13542-2-6-7
Rain & snow (mm)126107106938978109108125141133125
Wet days211820181718202020212020
Sun h/day0.41.13.86.47.37.65.95.03.51.60.60.4
Snow on the ground (cm)54697863254117152439

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (441 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.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
202075%139%85%89%52%83%78%73%116%134%90%173%
202171%119%85%39%62%131%36%36%123%144%86%69%
202268%123%116%87%151%153%102%92%82%100%222%59%
202384%67%111%114%78%125%77%46%138%103%77%50%
202468%69%153%78%74%102%74%158%54%77%52%42%
2025118%123%60%79%68%211%63%78%143%59%47%123%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Hengifoss

Iceland

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

Litlanesfoss

Iceland

  • 30 mHeight
  • —Average flow
  • Jun–SepBest months

See the guide

Strútsfoss

Iceland

  • —Height
  • 0.15 m³/sAverage flow
  • Jun–AugBest months

See the guide

Fardagafoss

Iceland

  • —Height
  • 0.95 m³/sAverage flow
  • Jun–AugBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q1605186) · CC0
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.