Five-hour daylight on the shortest day
Photo: Golli Golli / Kjartan Þorbjörnsson
On this, the shortest day of the year, there is just 2 hours 14 minutes between sunset and sunrise where the days are shortest in Iceland.
The northern peninsula of Rifstangi (close to the town of Raufarhöfn, North Iceland – see map below) has an official sunrise time of 11:55 am today, with sunset at 2:09 pm. At 2 hours 14 hours, this is Iceland’s shortest day on the shortest day of the year. These figures work out at just over four hours of actual daylight.
The northern town of Akureyri has a sunrise-to-sunset time of 3 hours 7 minutes, and the capital, Reykjavik, 4 hours 8 minutes. The longest day – expressed in these terms – will be on the southern-coast peninsula of Kötlutangi, near the town of Vík.
The average of actual daylight times (daylight to dark) across all parts of the country is 4 hours 59 minutes.
Full figures for places all over the country are available on the website of the Icelandic Met Office here (link in Icelandic).
Photo: Google
