Iceland 
In numbers.
20m
Height
0.30m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jun–Sep
Best months
60kW
Water power
estimate
The water at Svartifoss, 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.
Waterfall surrounded with basalt columns in Iceland
Svartifoss is a waterfall in Iceland. The water falls 20 m over a front 2 m wide. It lies within Vatnajökull National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Parking 1,320 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 from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
60 kW
About 0.30 m³/s falling 20 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 15 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 167 m in 2.6 km. Here the river runs about 43 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 14viewpointsSjónarsker and 13 more
- 9waymarked walking routesSjónarnípa, Jökulslóð, Svartifoss - Sjónarsker - Sel and 6 more
- 3car parks
- —swimming spots
- 7picnic sites
- 4toilets
- 8information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 4other named waterfalls within 4 kmHundafoss, Magnúsarfoss, Þjófafoss and 1 more
- —caves
- 3campsitesSkaftafell, Svinafell, 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 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| Night °C | -2 | -2 | -1 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | -2 |
| 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 (235 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.
Svartifoss
Iceland
- 20 mHeight
- 0.30 m³/sAverage flow
- Jun–SepBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q1145786) · 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
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves or dark skies?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
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rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit 
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit 
caves
Every cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.Coming soonVisit 
dark skies
Where the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Coming soonVisit