Iceland 
In numbers.
10m
Height
OpenStreetMap
0.30m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jun–Sep
Best months
30kW
Water power
estimate
The water at Magnúsarfoss, month by month
It roars from July to October and from December to March.
The fullest months: from July to October and from December to March, with the snowmelt.
- 0.5 m³/sJan
- 0.5 m³/sFeb
- 0.3 m³/sMar
- 0.2 m³/sApr
- 0.1 m³/sMay
- 0.2 m³/sJun
- 0.4 m³/sJul
- 0.6 m³/sAug
- 0.6 m³/sSep
- 0.6 m³/sOct
- 0.3 m³/sNov
- 0.4 m³/sDec
From about 0.10 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.63 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.
Magnúsarfoss is a waterfall in Iceland. The water falls 10 m. It lies within Vatnajökull National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Parking 740 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Hornafjörður Airport (HFN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 90 km in a straight lineCar hire at HFN airport (Höfn)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.
How big is it?
How big it really is.
Height of the drop as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
30 kW
About 0.30 m³/s falling 10 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 7 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 202 m in 3.5 km.
What is around.
- 12viewpointsSjónarsker and 11 more
- 9waymarked walking routesSjónarnípa, Jökulslóð, Svartifoss - Sjónarsker - Sel and 6 more
- 4car parks
- —swimming spots
- 7picnic sites
- 4toilets
- 8information boards and visitor centres
- 1bus stops within 1 km
- 4other named waterfalls within 4 kmHundafoss, Svartifoss, Þjófafoss and 1 more
- —caves
- 2campsitesSkaftafell, Campsite Reception
- 1hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHotel Skaftafell
- 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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 2 |
| Night °C | -1 | -1 | -1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 0 | -1 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 280 | 258 | 223 | 177 | 111 | 96 | 119 | 149 | 228 | 244 | 225 | 270 |
| Wet days | 24 | 22 | 23 | 19 | 17 | 16 | 19 | 19 | 22 | 21 | 21 | 23 |
| Sun h/day | 1.1 | 3.6 | 7.8 | 12.0 | 14.4 | 13.8 | 11.1 | 9.3 | 6.2 | 4.3 | 1.9 | 0.7 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 102 | 124 | 140 | 147 | 135 | 102 | 57 | 20 | 11 | 22 | 49 | 76 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (168 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 | 108% | 101% | 96% | 98% | 98% | 130% | 75% | 135% | 113% | 65% | 92% | 66% |
| 2021 | 40% | 89% | 69% | 97% | 50% | 189% | 61% | 56% | 131% | 96% | 94% | 78% |
| 2022 | 107% | 92% | 224% | 70% | 167% | 105% | 107% | 124% | 63% | 52% | 130% | 25% |
| 2023 | 86% | 129% | 66% | 127% | 165% | 143% | 25% | 40% | 99% | 66% | 52% | 55% |
| 2024 | 81% | 54% | 94% | 62% | 107% | 97% | 109% | 136% | 74% | 84% | 122% | 89% |
| 2025 | 92% | 164% | 90% | 61% | 120% | 114% | 103% | 104% | 146% | 58% | 28% | 93% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Magnúsarfoss
Iceland
- 10 mHeight
- 0.30 m³/sAverage flow
- Jun–SepBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q62260862) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| 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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