River
Ölfusá
25 km from source to mouth · Iceland.
IcelandFlows into Atlantic Ocean5th longest in Iceland
In numbers
Length
25km
Average flow
420m³/s
Basin
5,760km²
Drop
10m
from 19 m to 9 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
25 km of river and 5 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 19 m
- 4 kmHestvatn6.1 km²
- 18 kmÁlftavatn (lanaw sa Islandya, Suðurland, lat 64,02, long -20,98)2.5 km²
- 20 kmHvítátributary
- 23 kmSog Rivertributary
- 25 kmSelfoss9,000 people
- 25 kmAtlantic Oceanat 9 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Iceland
At the mouth it carries 423 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 5.9 seconds. Its basin covers 5,760 km², about the size of BN. 2,578 people live in it. Highest water: from November to February. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- SelfossLargest city on its banks · 9,000 people
- Reykjavík Domestic Airport (RKV)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 51 km from the cityCar hire at RKV airport (Reykjavík)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- Kayak and canoe2 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From July to AugustThe best months to visit
Ölfusá, month by month
Highest water: from November to February
Best months to visit: from July to August.
From about 130 m³/s in the lowest month to 650 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
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.
The basin
Ölfusá: the basin in numbers
5,768 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 2,578people live in the basin
- 0/km²people per km²
- 481maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,205mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 2.0°Caverage air temperature
- 4%protected areas
- 2.9%covered by lakes
- 12%glaciers
- 1%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 12% Ice
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Ölfusá: what you find on the way
- 2RapidsStekkjarflúðw, Suðurkotsflúðir
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Ölfusá in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
3beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
4mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Hestvatnkm 36.1km²
- Álftavatn (lanaw sa Islandya, Suðurland, lat 64,02, long -20,98)km 152.5km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Beaches (3)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Hafnarskeið20 km away11.6°C
- Hafnarvík21 km away · cove11.6°C
- Feldarvík15 km away · cove11.6°C
Mountains at the source (4)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Ingólfsfjall3.2 km away551m
- mountain in southwestern Iceland11 km away481m
- Seyðishólar10 km away214m
- Grímsnes6.3 km away
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Ölfusá in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q297018) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Coastya, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
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.
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