Iceland Daylight Hours by Month (2026 Data)

In Iceland, the length of the day is almost a different country from one season to the next. On 21 June the sun is above the horizon in Reykjavík for 21 h 10 min¹, rising before 3 a.m. and setting just after midnight. Six months later it manages 4 h 07 min¹, and it never climbs more than 2.4°¹ above the horizon. On the island of Grímsey, which the Arctic Circle crosses, the sun does not set at all for 32 days¹.

Daylight is only part of the story. Iceland's clock runs about an hour ahead of the sun, so solar noon in Reykjavík falls around 13:30,² and clouds cut the sunshine that actually reaches the ground: Reykjavík gets 1,368 hours³ of sunshine a year, 30%³¹ of the time the sun is up. This report calculates sunrise, sunset and day length for seven Icelandic towns, checks the results against the University of Iceland almanac, and adds three decades of Icelandic Met Office sunshine measurements and the time difference to the US.

How many hours of daylight in Iceland

Day length in Iceland depends mostly on how far north you are. At the June solstice, Vík on the south coast has 20 h 36 min¹ of daylight and Akureyri in the north 23 h 37 min¹. At the December solstice the order reverses: Vík keeps 4 h 31 min¹, while Akureyri drops to 3 h 04 min¹ and Grímsey to 2 h 12 min¹.

Over a whole year the differences almost cancel out. Reykjavík has about 4,567 hours¹ with the sun above the horizon, Grímsey 4,649¹. What changes is when the light comes: Iceland trades dark winters for bright summer nights.

Iceland is also further north than the other Nordic capitals. On 21 December, Oslo has 5 h 54 min¹ of daylight, Stockholm 6 h 05 min¹ and Helsinki 5 h 49 min¹, all well above Reykjavík. New York, much further south, keeps 9 h 15 min¹ on its shortest day and gets only 15 h 06 min¹ on its longest.

Month by month

How many hours of daylight in Iceland in January

On 15 January, Reykjavík has 5 h 22 min¹ of daylight, from sunrise at 10:56¹ to sunset at 16:17¹. Akureyri has 4 h 40 min¹ and Vík 5 h 38 min¹. The sun rises late in the morning and stays low, so even the brightest hours feel like dusk.

How many hours of daylight in Iceland in February

On 15 February, Reykjavík has 8 h 34 min¹ of daylight, from sunrise at 09:25¹ to sunset at 17:59¹. Akureyri has 8 h 18 min¹ and Vík 8 h 41 min¹. Across February, Reykjavík gains more than 3 hours¹ of daylight, from 1 February to 1 March.

How many hours of daylight in Iceland in March

On 15 March, Reykjavík has 11 h 38 min¹ of daylight, from sunrise at 07:48¹ to sunset at 19:26¹. Akureyri has 11 h 37 min¹ and Vík 11 h 39 min¹. By the spring equinox on 20 March, day and night are roughly equal.

How many hours of daylight in Iceland in April

On 15 April, Reykjavík has 15 h 01 min¹ of daylight, from sunrise at 05:57¹ to sunset at 20:58¹. Akureyri has 15 h 15 min¹ and Vík 14 h 55 min¹. April days lengthen by an average of 6.6 minutes¹ a day.

How many hours of daylight in Iceland in May

On 15 May, Reykjavík has 18 h 20 min¹ of daylight, from sunrise at 04:14¹ to sunset at 22:34¹. Akureyri has 18 h 58 min¹ and Vík 18 h 05 min¹. From 20 May¹, the sun no longer sinks more than 6° below the horizon at night in Reykjavík.

How many hours of daylight in Iceland in June

On 15 June, Reykjavík has 21 h 02 min¹ of daylight, from sunrise at 02:57¹ to sunset at 23:59¹. Akureyri has 23 h 02 min¹ and Vík 20 h 29 min¹. The longest days of the year: the sun sets just after midnight around the solstice.

How many hours of daylight in Iceland in July

On 15 July, Reykjavík has 19 h 48 min¹ of daylight, from sunrise at 03:40¹ to sunset at 23:27¹. Akureyri has 20 h 48 min¹ and Vík 19 h 25 min¹. July keeps nearly all of June's light, and nights stay bright.

How many hours of daylight in Iceland in August

On 15 August, Reykjavík has 16 h 29 min¹ of daylight, from sunrise at 05:18¹ to sunset at 21:47¹. Akureyri has 16 h 52 min¹ and Vík 16 h 20 min¹. August loses daylight fastest of the summer months, 6.57 minutes¹ a day on average.

How many hours of daylight in Iceland in September

On 15 September, Reykjavík has 13 h 08 min¹ of daylight, from sunrise at 06:49¹ to sunset at 19:57¹. Akureyri has 13 h 13 min¹ and Vík 13 h 05 min¹. Around the autumn equinox on 23 September, day and night are equal again.

How many hours of daylight in Iceland in October

On 15 October, Reykjavík has 9 h 54 min¹ of daylight, from sunrise at 08:16¹ to sunset at 18:10¹. Akureyri has 9 h 44 min¹ and Vík 9 h 58 min¹. October days shorten by an average of 6.49 minutes¹ a day.

How many hours of daylight in Iceland in November

On 15 November, Reykjavík has 6 h 34 min¹ of daylight, from sunrise at 09:56¹ to sunset at 16:30¹. Akureyri has 6 h 04 min¹ and Vík 6 h 47 min¹. Daylight keeps shrinking by an average of 6.04 minutes¹ a day.

How many hours of daylight in Iceland in December

On 15 December, Reykjavík has 4 h 14 min¹ of daylight, from sunrise at 11:16¹ to sunset at 15:30¹. Akureyri has 3 h 13 min¹ and Vík 4 h 37 min¹. The shortest days: the sun is up for only about four hours around the solstice.

Reykjavik daylight hours by month

The table and charts below give Reykjavík's day month by month: sunrise, sunset, the hours of daylight and the longer period of usable light that includes civil twilight, when the sun is less than 6° below the horizon. In mid-December the sun is up for 4 h 14 min¹, but twilight stretches usable light to about 6 h 50 min¹.

Iceland sunrise and sunset by month

Sunrise in Reykjavík moves from 11:16¹ in mid-December to 02:57¹ in mid-June, and sunset from 15:30¹ to 23:59¹. These times use Iceland's clock, which is Greenwich Mean Time all year. The University of Iceland almanac, as printed in the government's 2018 report on standard time, gives light in Reykjavík on 15 January from 9:48² to 17:27², matching our twilight calculation for the same day within a few minutes.

Does Iceland have total darkness

No part of Iceland has polar night, a day when the sun never rises. Even on Grímsey, the northernmost inhabited place, the sun is above the horizon for 2 h 12 min¹ on 21 December, although it barely clears the horizon. Over a whole year in Reykjavík, about 4,567 hours¹ have the sun up, 862 hours¹ are twilight, and 3,331 hours¹ are darker than civil twilight, most of them on long winter nights.

The opposite, the midnight sun, only happens at the very top of the country. Over a flat sea horizon, the sun stays up on Grímsey from 6 June¹ to 7 July¹. In Reykjavík the sun sets for a few hours even at midsummer, but from 20 May¹ to 24 July¹, 66 nights¹ in all, it never sinks more than 6° below the horizon, so the sky stays in twilight until morning.

Daylight changes fast

Near the equinoxes, Reykjavík's day length changes by several minutes every day. The fastest gain in 2026 is 6.7 minutes¹ a day around 1 May¹, and the fastest loss 6.6 minutes¹ a day around 11 August¹. Around the solstices the change slows almost to zero. Across March, days lengthen by an average of 6.54 minutes¹ a day; in December the average change is only 2.37 minutes¹.

How many hours of sunlight in Iceland

Long days do not mean sunny days. The Met Office sunshine records used here, from Reykjavík and Akureyri, both show how cloudy Iceland is. Reykjavík's sunniest month is May, with 209 hours³ of sunshine on average in 1991–2020, and its darkest is December with 13 hours³. Akureyri in the north gets 0.3 hours³ in December and 190 hours³ in June.

Comparing measured sunshine with the hours the sun is up shows the effect of clouds. In Reykjavík, the sun shines for about 36.6%³ of possible daylight in May and only 9.3%³ in December.

Reykjavik average annual sunshine hours

Reykjavík averaged 1,368 hours³ of sunshine a year in 1991–2020, and Akureyri 1,051 hours³. Individual years vary widely: the sunniest year in Reykjavík's record since 1949 was 2012³ with 1,587 hours³, and the least sunny was 1983³ with 943 hours³. Recent years have been above the long-term average: 1,495 hours³ in 2023, 1,459³ in 2024 and 1,422³ in 2025. The chart fits a straight line to every year since 1949 and extends it to 2050; it is a simple trend, not a forecast.

Iceland cloud cover by month

Clouds explain most of the missing sunshine. Averaged across 30 Met Office weather stations for 1991–2020, cloud cover sits between 5.9³ and 6.2 oktas³ in every month, meaning roughly three-quarters of the sky is covered on average whatever the season. The long light of summer and the short days of winter change far more than the clouds do.

How many hours ahead is Iceland

Iceland's clock has followed Greenwich Mean Time all year since 1968. The Act on time reckoning in Iceland states that hours are counted "all year round according to Greenwich mean time",⁴ and the country has not used daylight saving time since. Before 1968 the clock was moved forward in summer; the change made the summer time permanent.²

How many time zones in Iceland

Iceland has one time zone for the whole country, UTC+0. By its longitude it would belong in the zone one hour further west, UTC−1, and the government's 2018 report notes that this is why the sun is highest over Reykjavík at about 13:30² rather than 12:30. Our calculation puts solar noon in Reykjavík between 13:13¹ and 13:42¹ across the year. The report weighed moving the clock back an hour, keeping it, or starting schools later, and linked the late clock to shorter sleep among young people.²

How many hours ahead is Iceland from New York

Iceland is 5 hours⁵ ahead of New York in winter. Because the US moves its clocks forward from 8 March⁵ to 1 November⁵ in 2026 and Iceland does not, the gap shrinks to 4 hours⁵ for most of the year.

How many hours ahead is Iceland from Chicago

Chicago is 6 hours⁵ behind Iceland in winter and 5 hours⁵ behind during US daylight saving time. Denver is 7⁵ and 6 hours⁵ behind.

How many hours ahead is Iceland from California

California is 8 hours⁵ behind Iceland in winter and 7 hours⁵ behind in summer. Europe works the other way: when the EU moves to summer time from 29 March⁶ to 25 October⁶ in 2026, cities such as Oslo and Berlin move a further hour ahead of Iceland.

Should Iceland turn its clock back?

Iceland used summer time on and off from 1917² and without a break from 1939² to 1968, when it chose to keep the summer clock all year. The 2018 report says the reasons were mainly commercial: being closer to Europe in time and making better use of daylight in waking hours, with dark winter mornings judged a smaller cost than light afternoons.²

A working group set up by the health minister argued the opposite in January 2018. It reported that most Icelandic teenagers are short of 2–3 hours² of the sleep they need, and that Icelanders go to bed later and sleep less than people in neighbouring countries.² Using the University of Iceland almanac, it estimated what turning the clock back one hour would change: hours of light in the morning would rise by 13%² in the far west, and winter mornings that are light at 9 a.m. would increase by 64². The cost would be 3–4%² fewer light hours across adults' waking day from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., and 13%² fewer between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m., mostly in April and August. The government's report put three options up for public discussion: keep the clock and encourage earlier bedtimes, move the clock back one hour, or keep it and start schools and workplaces later.² The 1968 law is still in force.⁴

What the daylight means for a trip

For travellers, Iceland's daylight shapes the day more than the temperature does. In mid-December the sun is up in Reykjavík from about 11:16¹ to 15:30¹, which leaves a few hours for driving and sightseeing in daylight; twilight stretches that to about 6 h 50 min¹. Winter plans work best with short drives and the most important stops in the middle of the day.

From May to July the problem is the opposite: light lasts through the night, and in mid-June the sun sets in Reykjavík at 23:59¹. Days can be as long as energy allows, but sleep can suffer without dark curtains. And whatever the season, the clock runs about an hour ahead of the sun, so mornings are darker and evenings brighter than a visitor from elsewhere at the same latitude would expect.

Conclusions

1. Iceland has no polar night and no endless summer sun on the mainland. Reykjavík's day swings between 4 h 07 min¹ and 21 h 10 min¹, and only Grímsey, on the Arctic Circle, gets true midnight sun, for 32 days¹.
2. Latitude inside Iceland matters more in winter than in summer. On the shortest day Vík has 4 h 31 min¹ of daylight and Grímsey 2 h 12 min¹, while over a whole year the towns end up within about 100 hours¹ of each other.
3. Light is plentiful, sunshine is not. Reykjavík's sun shines for at most about 36.6%³ of possible daylight in any month, and cloud cover stays near three-quarters of the sky all year.
4. Iceland's clock runs about an hour ahead of the sun. A law from 1968 keeps Greenwich Mean Time all year, so solar noon in Reykjavík falls around 13:30², winter mornings stay dark late, and the time difference to the US changes twice a year even though Iceland's clock never moves.