Flying Drones in Cold Weather

Ever wanted to visit Iceland, or the Nordic countries with your drone? Can you fly a drone when it's snowing? The answer to both is YES!

Here are some tips for drone enthusiasts who are looking to fly their drones in extreme cold weathers.


When it comes to flying in cold weathers, you need to make sure several things with your battery.

1. Battery Temperature

When batteries are too cold, the necessary chemical reactions don't happen to generate the electrical currents.  If you want to know any further you might need to look up for some science web sites!

Before flying in the cold, always store your batteries in a warm place.  Some options are:

- In your jacket's inner pockets and warm the battery with your own body warmth
- In a warm place in your car (but not the trunk)

If the battery temperature drops significantly during flight, it might affect your battery voltage and we strongly recommend you switch on the indicator for battery voltage on your main flight screen to monitor this during flight.

2. Battery Voltage

And this brings us to monitoring battery voltage. 

Your drone requires a certain voltage from the batteries to keep alive. Generally speaking, you need to take note of the following figures:

  • 3.3V - Prepare to land your drone
  • 3.0V - Your drone is likely to lose power and free-fall

By default, your voltage display should be off. On a DJI system, you can enable the voltage display by following the below steps:

Select settings -> Aircraft Battery -> Advanced settings -> Show Voltage on Mainscreen

3. Battery Life

I'm sure a lot of photography enthusiasts have heard of the fact that batteries life is reduced in the cold.  The same applies for drones! If your drone is supposed to fly for 30 minutes, you might realistically be looking at 20. Always pay attention to the battery percentage when you fly in the cold!

The Beyond Visuals Team

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    • amoxilcheap
  • I’m thinking, does the cold weather also affect the long term battery life? After years, the batteries looses its power. Can Cold weather drastically lower the battery life?

    • Noel Illinger