Langjokull Weather Month By Month

Weather does not decide whether you can visit Langjökull. It decides which road you take, what you see when you get there, and how likely your day is to move. The figures below are Icelandic Meteorological Office station records rather than estimates. Pick your month here, then compare fares on a Langjokull ice cave tour.

What the weather does to a visit here

Three consequences, in the order they matter.

It closes a road, not the glacier. Mountain road 550 between Húsafell and the Klaki base camp is open June to mid-October and shut the rest of the year, and F35 over Kjölur opens around 1 June. Neither closure stops the tunnel or the snowmobiles: a shuttle covers the western leg all winter and the southern approach from Gullfoss is paved.

It moves days. Wind and low cloud on the ice cap are why most of these operators reserve the right to cancel. Every one of them refunds you in full at 24 hours, so book your glacier day early in the trip and keep a spare behind it.

It decides what you see. Not the ice — that is the same in July as in January — but the sky above it. Between late August and early April you have darkness enough for the aurora. Between May and August you have a sun that barely sets. Those are two completely different days on the same glacier.

Langjokull month by month

Figures are monthly means. The ice-cap column is Hveravellir, the Met Office station at 641 metres on the Kjölur route between Langjökull and Hofsjökull, whose record runs 1991–2004. The city column is Reykjavik's 1991–2020 normal. Where you will actually be is higher than the station and colder again, so read both and dress for the first.

January

-5.4 °C on the ice cap, 0.7 °C in Reykjavik, 12 hours of sun. The coldest month up top and the darkest. Hveravellir, the highland station between the two ice caps, averages −5.4 °C and twelve hours of sunshine for the whole month. Mountain road 550 is shut, so the tunnel runs on the shuttle from Húsafell. Aurora season is at its best, and so is the chance of a tour moving a day.

February

-6.2 °C on the ice cap, 0.6 °C in Reykjavik, 42 hours of sun. The coldest average of the year at −6.2 °C, and the wettest of the winter months at 84 mm. Light returns quickly — forty-two hours of sunshine against January's twelve. Everything still runs; the ice cap is at its most reliably frozen and the tunnel is unaffected by any of it.

March

-5.5 °C on the ice cap, 1.2 °C in Reykjavik, 88 hours of sun. Still below freezing on the ice cap and noticeably brighter, with eighty-eight hours of sun. Reykjavik itself climbs above zero. This is your last full month of dependable aurora and your first with enough daylight to take a late departure. If you are here to ride, March is the month to do it.

April

-2.7 °C on the ice cap, 3.7 °C in Reykjavik, 146 hours of sun. The shoulder month. The highland mean lifts to −2.7 °C, precipitation drops to its lowest of the year at 43 mm, and there are 146 hours of sun. The mountain roads are still closed. Reykjavik is around 3.7 °C, which is the number to dress for at both ends of the day.

May

1.5 °C on the ice cap, 6.7 °C in Reykjavik, 171 hours of sun. The ice cap crosses freezing at 1.5 °C and the light becomes the point: 171 hours of sunshine and evenings that barely end. The mountain roads are not open yet. Snow at 1,200 metres does not care about a lowland thaw, so what you ride on is the same as it was in March.

June

5.5 °C on the ice cap, 9.8 °C in Reykjavik, 188 hours of sun. Mountain road 550 opens on 1 June, and F35 over Kjölur opens around the same date — the road authority's average is 1 June, with a fortnight of variation between years. The ice cap averages 5.5 °C and 188 hours of sun, the most of any month. Midnight-sun departures start.

July

7.9 °C on the ice cap, 11.6 °C in Reykjavik, 149 hours of sun. The warmest month on the ice cap at 7.9 °C, and the driest at 46 mm. Reykjavik reaches 11.6 °C. If you assumed an ice cave was a winter thing, this is the month that surprises you: the tunnel is cut by machine, so July changes nothing about it. Book early, because the short days from the city fill first.

August

7.3 °C on the ice cap, 11.0 °C in Reykjavik, 140 hours of sun. Warm by highland standards at 7.3 °C and wetter again at 66 mm. Expect to be snowed on at the top of the glacier even in August — that is the altitude rather than a freak, and it is why you are issued an overall. Roads are all open and your light is still long. Aurora returns at the end of the month.

September

3.9 °C on the ice cap, 8.5 °C in Reykjavik, 100 hours of sun. The best-balanced month. The highland mean is 3.9 °C, there are still a hundred hours of sun, and dark returns far enough for the northern lights. Both mountain roads are open all month. Prices and crowds ease from the middle of it onward.

October

-0.7 °C on the ice cap, 4.9 °C in Reykjavik, 57 hours of sun. The turn. Mountain road 550 closes around the 15th and F35 goes with it, after which your only way up the western side is the shuttle. The highland mean drops to −0.7 °C and 73 mm falls. Good aurora, shortening days, and the quietest ice cap you will get all year.

November

-3.7 °C on the ice cap, 2.2 °C in Reykjavik, 18 hours of sun. −3.7 °C on the ice cap and eighteen hours of sun in the whole month. The tunnel and the snowmobile tours both run, from Húsafell on the shuttle and from Gullfoss on the paved road. Dress for the transfer rather than the tunnel: the truck is the part that will make you cold.

December

-5.1 °C on the ice cap, 0.8 °C in Reykjavik, 4 hours of sun. Four hours of sunshine across the month, and a highland mean of −5.1 °C. Departures are built round what light there is, so expect a late morning start and a low sun. Inside the tunnel it is around 0 °C, which in December is warmer than the air you left outside.

The seasons, and which one you want

Best time of day

In summer, take the last departure of the day. The sun sits low over the ice for hours rather than minutes, and you can catch the sunset and the moon over the glacier in the same hour. Two travellers on these tours recommend that slot without being asked.

In winter you have no such choice. December carries four hours of sunshine in the whole month, so departures are built round what light there is and you go when you are told. The tunnel does not mind either way: it is lit from inside the ice.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Icelandic Meteorological Office — monthly station means
• Vegagerðin — opening of mountain roads