| Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 | ![]() |
Grass colour in late May - beautiful green or ugly yellow?Country forums / Scandinavia & the Nordics / Iceland | ||
I just saw a photo of Iceland's Gullfoss Falls and the surrounding grassy areas were all yellow and unattractive. Apparently the photo was taken at the 'end of the Winter season' (whatever that is). Anyway, I'm going to Iceland in late May to drive the ring road and would like to know if I'm going to see beautiful green grass or the ugly stuff like in the photo. | ||
Hi! Late May (after 20th) will be green enough in Rejkyavik and on the South coast. Gullfoss and the highlands as well as most of the North might still wear their winter colours. But, if we have a warm and rainy spring, the display is changing literary by hours | 1 | |
I was in Iceland two years ago in May. As mentioned in the previous post, the south will be much greener. The northern portion of the island could still be covered in snow. We were stuck in a snowstorm on the ring road and there was more than 1 meter of snow on the ground close to Dettifoss mid-May. | 2 | |
Thanks for that info. Ok, to sum up: shorts and a floppy hat for the South; thermals and something furry for the North. | 3 | |
You'll be lucky to have a shorts and floppy hat day anywhere any month. #2 refers to "the north" but Myvatn and Dettifoss are well inland and fairly high up (over 300m), which is more to the point of why there was so much snow there that late. At a sheltered coastal town like Akureyri it won't be much cooler than Reykjavik in May. Although, that said, there has been known to be heavy snowfalls even at coastal locations in the NE in late May, but it doesn't happen most years. Gullfoss, although in the south, is also well inland and fairly high.
April is generally taken as the last month of winter in a practical sense, though of course seasons don't change instantly nor on reliable dates. | 4 | |