Iceland 
In numbers.
Jun–Sep
Best months
67m
Elevation
The water at Systrafoss, month by month
It runs all year.
It carries water fairly evenly through the year.
- 90%Jan
- 88%Feb
- 83%Mar
- 86%Apr
- 88%May
- 82%Jun
- 86%Jul
- 89%Aug
- 100%Sep
- 98%Oct
- 88%Nov
- 91%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to September.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Getting there.
- Parking 120 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Hornafjörður Airport (HFN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 149 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.
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 95 m in 1.5 km.
What is around.
- 2viewpoints
- 1waymarked walking routesKirkjubæjarklaustur
- 15car parks
- —swimming spots
- 6picnic sites
- 5toilets
- 7information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 2other named waterfalls within 4 kmRauðárfoss, Stjórnarfoss
- —caves
- 2campsitesKirkjubær II, Tjaldsvæðið Kleifar
- 10hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmGeirland, Klausturhof, Hotel Klaustur and 7 more
- 2restaurants 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 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 1 |
| Night °C | -3 | -3 | -3 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 2 | -1 | -3 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 263 | 244 | 225 | 184 | 127 | 120 | 146 | 166 | 241 | 242 | 226 | 260 |
| Wet days | 23 | 22 | 22 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 21 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 21 | 22 |
| Sun h/day | 0.9 | 2.6 | 6.3 | 10.2 | 11.9 | 11.0 | 9.1 | 7.4 | 5.2 | 3.4 | 1.3 | 0.7 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 84 | 104 | 120 | 113 | 84 | 56 | 27 | 7 | 6 | 17 | 36 | 58 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (67 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 | 109% | 98% | 92% | 102% | 108% | 122% | 78% | 129% | 118% | 61% | 87% | 75% |
| 2021 | 41% | 93% | 76% | 94% | 55% | 159% | 65% | 64% | 130% | 105% | 96% | 80% |
| 2022 | 110% | 87% | 202% | 75% | 148% | 107% | 99% | 116% | 65% | 57% | 123% | 29% |
| 2023 | 86% | 131% | 61% | 124% | 168% | 130% | 19% | 54% | 107% | 84% | 52% | 59% |
| 2024 | 86% | 60% | 89% | 59% | 112% | 102% | 105% | 128% | 74% | 86% | 107% | 96% |
| 2025 | 96% | 149% | 94% | 65% | 100% | 101% | 123% | 114% | 136% | 62% | 39% | 95% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Systrafoss
Iceland
- —Height
- —Average flow
- Jun–SepBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q279439) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| 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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