Weather in Reykjavík in July

Shoulder season. July is shoulder season in Reykjavík — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. You should expect rain on 16 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

July is the highest-scoring month of the twelve. The nearest rival is June, and the month at the other end of the year is December.

Rain on 16 days, 3 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 13.9 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: the day barely swings — 4.9 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest July day reached 23.1 °C and the coldest night fell to 4.3 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 34 mm — roughly 34% of the month's rain in one day.

July is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest July on record still delivered 173 mm against 39 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 99 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 6.9 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 83%, which at 13.9 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How July sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 12.1 °C in June, 13.9 here, 13.3 in August. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in July

19.8 hours of daylight, losing 2.7 hours across the month. That is between Reykjavík's extremes of 21 and 4.3 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 11.5 °C in July — too cold to swim without a wetsuit. This is the warmest the water gets all year.

How busy it gets

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

July in Reykjavík versus nearby

If Reykjavík is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Akureyri is the weaker option in July — 4.5 °C cooler, 4 days more rain. Glasgow is close enough to be a coin toss — 4.1 °C warmer, 6 days more rain.

So: July is the answer for Reykjavík. If it is booked out or priced out, June is the next best thing at 5 points behind, and December is the month to keep off the shortlist.

Every month in Reykjavík

See all twelve months in Reykjavík, or where else to go in July.