
In numbers.
Jun–Sep
Best months
142m
Elevation
The water at Þjófafoss, month by month
It roars from September to May.
It carries water fairly evenly through the year.
- 100%Jan
- 97%Feb
- 90%Mar
- 89%Apr
- 90%May
- 72%Jun
- 54%Jul
- 51%Aug
- 79%Sep
- 80%Oct
- 84%Nov
- 99%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.
Waterfall on the river Þjórsá in Iceland
Þjófafoss is a waterfall in Iceland.
Getting there.
- Parking 110 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Reykjavík Domestic Airport (RKV)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 101 km in a straight lineCar hire at RKV airport (Reykjavík)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 56 m in 3.5 km. Here the river runs about 33 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- —viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 2campsitesSandártunga, Rjúpnavellir
- 1hotels, 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 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| Night °C | -4 | -4 | -4 | -1 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 1 | -2 | -4 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 192 | 175 | 169 | 130 | 96 | 92 | 111 | 119 | 183 | 156 | 162 | 194 |
| Wet days | 23 | 21 | 22 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 21 | 20 | 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) | 39 | 46 | 53 | 43 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 18 | 26 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (142 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 | 135% | 89% | 101% | 103% | 117% | 128% | 79% | 137% | 118% | 55% | 101% | 77% |
| 2021 | 52% | 75% | 93% | 91% | 77% | 130% | 93% | 75% | 124% | 94% | 127% | 76% |
| 2022 | 144% | 89% | 181% | 72% | 113% | 119% | 124% | 128% | 69% | 70% | 76% | 38% |
| 2023 | 89% | 141% | 32% | 102% | 223% | 137% | 22% | 75% | 101% | 96% | 61% | 76% |
| 2024 | 93% | 72% | 68% | 67% | 122% | 122% | 116% | 130% | 61% | 90% | 104% | 122% |
| 2025 | 90% | 127% | 110% | 70% | 108% | 114% | 129% | 104% | 99% | 95% | 36% | 79% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q2043770) · 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
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.






