Iceland in May
May is the month the numbers quietly favour. It is Reykjavík's sunniest month of the year - 209 hours, ahead of June and well ahead of July - with daylight racing past 20 hours, puffin colonies at full strength, and about a third fewer visitors than June. The trade-offs are honest ones: it is bright rather than warm, and the highlands stay shut. In 2027 it is also a month of four public holidays, because the early Easter drags Ascension and Whitsun into its first half.
Weather: The Sunshine Month
| Measure | Reykjavík | Akureyri |
|---|---|---|
| Mean temperature | 6.7 °C | 6.2 °C |
| Mean daily maximum | 10.1 °C | 10.3 °C |
| Mean daily minimum | 4 °C | 3.2 °C |
| Precipitation | 52.6 mm | 24.1 mm |
| Sunshine, whole month | 209 hours | 171 hours |
Where these numbers come from. The Icelandic Met Office publishes 30-year normals tables for 1961-1990 only - there is no published 1991-2020 table. We computed these from the Met Office's own monthly station files across the 30 years to 2020. They are computed, not published, and we say so rather than implying an official table exists.
The sunshine crown needs its honest footnote: May is the sunniest month in Reykjavík; in Akureyri, June takes it. But the south-west's May lead is not small - 209 hours against June's 189.5 - and the north compensates with dryness: Akureyri's 24.1 mm makes May one of its driest months. None of this is warmth. A May day at 10 °C in still sunshine feels glorious; a windy one feels like March. Snow showers can still visit the north into early May.
Daylight: The Night Leaves
| Date | Reykjavík | Daylight | Akureyri | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 May | 05:01 - 21:51 | 16 h 50 m | 04:33 - 21:48 | 17 h 15 m |
| 15 May | 04:14 - 22:37 | 18 h 23 m | 03:40 - 22:41 | 19 h 01 m |
| 31 May | 03:26 - 23:27 | 20 h 01 m | 02:39 - 23:45 | 21 h 06 m |
From around the middle of the month the sky stops getting properly dark anywhere in Iceland, and the midnight-sun feeling is fully installed by the final week: on the 31st the Reykjavík sun sets at 23:27 and Akureyri's day runs past 21 hours. In Akureyri, May adds nearly four hours of daylight across the month - the north's biggest monthly gain of the year, as the acceleration that peaks in Reykjavík in April keeps building with latitude.
Four Public Holidays In May 2027
The 2027 calendar stacks May with days off: Labour Day on 1 May (a Saturday that year, still marked by the labour movement's parades), Ascension Day on Thursday 6 May - a favourite long-weekend anchor for Icelanders - and Whitsun on 16-17 May, with Whit Monday closing shops and banks. The movable feasts ride on Easter, and 2027's early Easter (28 March) pulls them all into the first half of May. For a visitor the practical effects are closed shops on the holidays, busy domestic travel around Ascension weekend, and nothing worse.
What Else Is On
| When | What | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Sat 1 May 2027 | Verkalýðsdagurinn, Labour Day | A public holiday since the era of the labour movement's spring parades, which still march in Reykjavík and the larger towns. Falls on a Saturday in 2027. |
| Thu 6 May 2027 | Uppstigningardagur, Ascension Day | A public holiday, always a Thursday - a favourite for long-weekend trips by Icelanders themselves. |
| Early May | HönnunarMars, DesignMarch | Reykjavík's design festival - held in May despite the name (6-10 May in 2026). 2027 dates not yet published. |
| 13-15 May 2027 | EVE Fanfest, Harpa | CCP Games' gathering of EVE Online players in Reykjavík; the 2027 dates are already published. |
| Sun-Mon 16-17 May 2027 | Hvítasunna, Whitsun | Whit Sunday and Whit Monday are both public holidays; the Monday closes shops and banks. |
One scheduling footnote: Listahátíð í Reykjavík, the Reykjavík Arts Festival, is a biennial held in even years (the 2026 edition opened 30 May), so there is none in 2027 - the next is expected in 2028.
The Kría, The Puffins And The Lambs
May belongs to the birds. The kría - the arctic tern, back from Antarctic waters - takes over the coastline this month, and its famous punctuality deserves the honest version: the folklore that it lands at Reykjavík's Tjörnin on exactly 14 May is, in the words of one Icelandic ornithological account, simply not true. The mid-20th-century window was 10-13 May, and arrivals have drifted earlier still; 2026 set a record with terns seen on 8 April. Puffin colonies reach full strength around the turn of April and May, making this the first reliably good puffin month of the season. On the farms, May is sauðburður - peak lambing - and the fields fill with lambs within weeks. What May does not have is lupine: the purple bloom that fills summer photographs starts in June.
The Highlands Stay Shut - And Why That Is The Catch
May's one hard limitation: the interior. In our dataset of every recorded F-road opening from 2021 to 2025, the earliest opening of any highland road is 23 May - F208 north in 2025, an exceptional year - and the network as a whole opens between mid-June and mid-July. Landmannalaugar, Þórsmörk by road, Askja: not in May. The Ring Road, by contrast, is in its element - effectively 2WD season, with studded tyres gone from the fleets and daylight to spare - though late snow can still brush the northern passes. umferdin.is settles any doubt.
How Busy Is It?
Here is May's quiet superpower. Icelandic Tourist Board counts show 159,571 foreign departures through Keflavík in May 2025 - about half of peak-August volume, barely above April, and a full third below June's 233,802. The gap between May and June is the largest month-to-month jump in the tourist year: the same daylight class, sharply different queues and prices. If the highlands are not on your list, late May is arguably the best-value bright-season window Iceland has.
Related Guides
Compare with April, quieter still and with the aurora season's last nights, and June, when the solstice and the highland openings arrive with the crowds. The when to visit hub compares all twelve months - complete, as of this page - and the hot springs are at their evening best under a sky that no longer darkens.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is May A Sunny Month In Iceland?
The sunniest of the year, in Reykjavík: 209 hours of sunshine on the 1991-2020 station data - more than June's 189.5 and well ahead of July. The pattern is real and old; May regularly tops the capital's sunshine tables. In Akureyri June takes the crown, but May's 171 hours there come with remarkably little rain - about 24 mm. May is not warm (a Reykjavík mean of 6.7 °C), but it is bright, dry and long.
Is There Midnight Sun In Iceland In May?
Increasingly, yes. From around the middle of the month the sky stops getting properly dark anywhere in the country, and by 31 May the Reykjavík sun sets at 23:27 and is back before 03:30 - over 20 hours of daylight, with bright twilight in between. Akureyri ends the month at 21 hours. The full sun-barely-sets experience peaks at the June solstice, but the endless-evening feeling is well established by late May.
Are The Highlands Open In May?
No - plan as if closed. In our dataset of every recorded F-road opening from 2021 to 2025, the earliest opening of any highland road is 23 May (F208 north to Landmannalaugar, in 2025), and that was exceptional; most roads open between mid-June and mid-July. An early, dry spring can bring the first openings in the final week of May, but no itinerary should depend on it. Check umferdin.is for current status.
What Public Holidays Fall In May In Iceland?
In 2027, four: Labour Day on 1 May, Ascension Day on Thursday 6 May, and Whitsun on 16-17 May - though 1 May lands on a Saturday and Whit Sunday is a Sunday, so only two extra weekdays close. The movable feasts follow Easter, so an early Easter (like 2027's, on 28 March) pulls Ascension and Whitsun into the first half of May. Expect closed shops and banks on the holidays, holiday traffic on the roads around Ascension weekend, and everything touristic running normally.
When Does The Kría Arrive - And Is The 14 May Story True?
The arctic tern's famous punctuality - arriving at Reykjavík's Tjörnin on exactly 14 May - is folklore that the records politely contradict. In the mid-20th century the typical window was 10-13 May, and arrivals have been drifting earlier; 2026 set a record with terns spotted on 8 April. What is true is that May is when the kría takes over the coastline in force - and starts dive-bombing anyone who walks too near a nest.
How Busy Is Iceland In May?
The quietest month of the bright half of the year. Icelandic Tourist Board counts show 159,571 foreign departures through Keflavík in May 2025 - about half of peak-August volume, barely above April, and a full third below June's 233,802. That gap is the practical argument for May: near-June daylight, the year's best sunshine odds in the south-west, and pre-season prices and availability. The trade is the highlands, which stay shut.
Sources
Temperature, precipitation and sunshine computed from Veðurstofa Íslands monthly station data for Reykjavík and Akureyri, 1991-2020 (read 12 August 2026). Daylight computed with the NOAA sunrise and sunset algorithm. Movable feast dates from Almanak Háskóla Íslands; holiday status from lög nr. 88/1971 and lög nr. 32/1997. The kría's arrival record from Vísindavefurinn; puffins from Vísindavefurinn; lambing from RML; lupine timing from Náttúrufræðistofnun; whale seasonality from Elding. Event dates from the organisers: the City of Reykjavík (DesignMarch), EVE Fanfest (2027 dates published) and Listahátíð. F-road openings from our own compiled dataset; visitor numbers from Ferðamálastofa (read 12 August 2026). Where 2027 event dates are not yet published we give the rule and say so.
Last updated: 2026-08-12 · Reviewed against official sources.