SHORT DAYS IN WINTER

At the end of October, when winter officially begins, the sun rises is around 09:30 and sets at 17:30. So, there are roughly 8:30 hours of daylight. Then, the days start to become shorter quickly, with December as the darkest month. Until the end of December, days are getting shorter every day.

The sunrise and sunset times for the winter solstice are 11:20 and 15:00 respectively. The shortest day barely lasts four hours, and if it's cloudy, it's dark the entire time. But Iceland is always gorgeous in the middle of winter, with lights and Christmas decorations everywhere!

After that, on December 21st, the days start to get longer. Also, January usually feels much lighter due to the additional six minutes of daylight each day. In March is the tipping point, after which Icelandic days begin to lengthen more than those of the rest of Europe.

When summer comes, Iceland has the opposite experience it does in winter with 22 hours of sunlight in a single day. These summer sunlight hours also lead up to what is called the “Midnight sun” Iceland season from May to August, where the sun sets right before midnight but the light persists until after midnight.