Iceland 
In numbers.
227m
Height
0.34m³/s
Average flow
estimate
747kW
Water power
estimate
The water at Morsárfoss, 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
- 0.5 m³/sJul
- 0.6 m³/sAug
- 0.7 m³/sSep
- 0.6 m³/sOct
- 0.3 m³/sNov
- 0.4 m³/sDec
From about 0.09 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.70 m³/s in the highest.
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
Morsárfoss is a waterfall in Iceland. The water falls 227 m. It lies within Vatnajökull National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Hornafjörður Airport (HFN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 83 km in a straight lineCar hire at HFN airport (Höfn)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
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.
747 kW
About 0.34 m³/s falling 227 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 187 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 2017 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
What is around.
- —viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- —campsites
- —hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
- —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 | -2 | -2 | -1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 2 | -1 | -2 |
| Night °C | -5 | -5 | -5 | -3 | -1 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | -1 | -4 | -5 |
| 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 (760 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 | 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.
Morsárfoss
Iceland
- 227 mHeight
- 0.34 m³/sAverage flow
- —Best months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q3324444) · 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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