Iceland 
In numbers.
44m
Height
0.79m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jun–Jul
Best months
340kW
Water power
estimate
The water at Selfoss, month by month
It roars from May to June.
The fullest months: from May to June, with the snowmelt. The thinnest: February. Below −4 °C on average (from December to February): the falls can partly freeze.
- 0.3 m³/sJan
- 0.2 m³/sFeb
- 0.4 m³/sMar
- 1.1 m³/sApr
- 2.5 m³/sMay
- 2.2 m³/sJun
- 1.2 m³/sJul
- 0.8 m³/sAug
- 1.0 m³/sSep
- 1.1 m³/sOct
- 1.0 m³/sNov
- 0.7 m³/sDec
From about 0.19 m³/s in the lowest month to 2.5 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 on the river Jökulsá á Fjöllum in the north of Iceland
Selfoss is a waterfall on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum, in Iceland. The water falls 44 m over a front 100 m wide. It lies within Vatnajökull National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Parking 1,670 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Vopnafjörður Airport (VPN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 70 km in a straight lineCar hire at AEY airport (Akureyri)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.
340 kW
About 0.79 m³/s falling 44 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 85 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 37 m in 3.0 km. Here the river runs about 23 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 6viewpoints
- 1waymarked walking routesHafragilsfoss und Dettifoss
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- 4picnic sites
- 1toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 3other named waterfalls within 4 kmDettifoss, Selfoss, Hafragilsfoss
- —caves
- 1campsites
- —hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
- 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 | -1 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 7 | 2 | -1 | -2 |
| Night °C | -7 | -7 | -6 | -4 | -1 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 2 | -2 | -5 | -7 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 105 | 85 | 99 | 83 | 86 | 69 | 93 | 100 | 127 | 131 | 127 | 122 |
| Wet days | 20 | 17 | 20 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 21 | 20 | 20 |
| Sun h/day | 0.0 | 0.4 | 2.2 | 4.6 | 6.0 | 7.8 | 5.6 | 4.6 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 72 | 86 | 96 | 81 | 34 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 15 | 30 | 51 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (318 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 | 122% | 155% | 106% | 84% | 54% | 68% | 149% | 52% | 147% | 111% | 111% | 166% |
| 2021 | 142% | 89% | 119% | 64% | 50% | 121% | 56% | 38% | 124% | 185% | 96% | 43% |
| 2022 | 66% | 127% | 59% | 86% | 141% | 197% | 166% | 184% | 63% | 186% | 105% | 60% |
| 2023 | 116% | 94% | 89% | 55% | 88% | 84% | 129% | 40% | 121% | 117% | 46% | 57% |
| 2024 | 54% | 97% | 132% | 91% | 45% | 234% | 85% | 204% | 91% | 85% | 61% | 48% |
| 2025 | 105% | 71% | 77% | 108% | 69% | 297% | 71% | 73% | 90% | 50% | 46% | 57% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Selfoss
Iceland
- 44 mHeight
- 0.79 m³/sAverage flow
- Jun–JulBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q1429734) · 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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