The sun, our main star, a source of life and for many, happiness and well-being. In our particular case, being a travel blog, we won’t focus on the effects of the sun on health but rather on our journey.
Sunlight is a much-needed commodity; daylight hours dictate agendas for leisure and tourism not only in Iceland but in any country. That’s why today we bring you this article with the daylight hours in Iceland per month.
Hours of Sunlight in Iceland
It’s true that in Iceland, there are various tours that can be done during nighttime, including the northern lights. But most activities and visits tend to happen during daylight hours. Why do we consider this important? Well, because in the case of Iceland, hours of light and sun cannot be taken for granted. Due to the country’s geographical location, in the North Atlantic, close to the pole, it doesn’t have the same light and sun patterns as most countries do.
It’s really important to consider this when organizing your schedules as it greatly affects the hours you might want to mark. During winter, sunlight is quite scarce, only about 4 to 5 hours of sun per day. But as summer approaches, the day becomes almost endless. We even have up to 20 hours of sunlight per day! So let’s get into it and analyze the hours of sunlight each month:
Table of sunlight hours per month in Iceland
| Reykjavik | Akureyri | |
|---|---|---|
| January | 11:19 / 15:44 | 11:32 / 15:00 |
| February | 10:08 / 17:15 | 08:25 / 16:47 |
| March | 08:36 / 18:46 | 08:25 / 18:26 |
| April | 06:46 / 20:19 | 06:28 / 20:07 |
| May | 05:00 / 21:52 | 04:33 / 21:49 |
| June | 03:23 / 23/30 | 02:34 / 23:50 |
| July | 03:05 / 23:57 | 01:57 / 00:32 |
| August | 04:33 / 22:59 | 04:01 / 22:34 |
| September | 06:09 / 20:44 | 05:48 / 20:35 |
| October | 07:36 / 18:58 | 07:22 / 18:41 |
| November | 09:10 / 17:12 | 09:04 / 16:47 |
| December | 10:45 / 15:48 | 10:52 / 15:10 |
Months of Darkness
November
Winter is coming! Along with it, days with little light, usually around 5-6 hours.
December
We’re already in the middle of winter and we stand with an average of 4 hours of sunlight per day.
January
It’s the coldest month of the year, so we’re directly in the middle of winter. Sunlight hours in Iceland are quite affected. The average is about 5 hours at the beginning of the month and about 6 at the end.
February
Very subtly, sunlight hours start to increase. Reaching 9 hours by the end of the month.
Months with More Light
March
We go up two hours on the sunlight hours scale in Iceland. We stand at an average of 11 hours per day.
April
At the beginning of the month, there are approximately 14 hours of sunlight. Reaching about 15 hours and 40 minutes by the end of the month. This schedule probably resembles that of other countries further south in Europe.
May
We’re gradually approaching a phenomenon that only occurs in certain countries with certain latitudes. Sunlight hours increase considerably to about 18-20 hours per day.
June
The phenomenon I referred to earlier is the midnight sun. This basically means that the sun doesn’t really set. This doesn’t mean that at midnight there’s blazing sunshine, no. There’s just a dim light like what we see in a normal sunset. That’s why this month averages about 20-22 hours of sunlight, a tremendous amount of light!
July
The average in this month is about 20 hours per day. It hardly gets dark!
August
The midnight sun no longer has an effect in this month, hence daytime sunlight hours reduce to about 15 per day.
September
The average is already between 12 hours of sunlight per day.
October
The average continues to decrease, and by the end of this month, it’s around 9 hours per day.
In summary, in Iceland, summer offers continuous sunlight for 24 hours, while winter reduces light to only 4-5 hours per day. In spring (March-April) and autumn (September-October), the duration of daylight equals that of Europe.
