Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.01.2015, Qupperneq 14

14
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 1 — 2015
- The Year In| Weather
Now, it would be a bit extreme to say that
this was a good year for Iceland in terms
of weather. While temperatures might
have been slightly above average, so was
precipitation—and we had our first volca-
nic eruption in over three years...
In the beginning
there was...
The year 2014 started with the usual
snowstorms, but despite the weather be-
ing bad, there were quite a few opportu-
nities for Icelanders to partake in their
favourite winter sport: skiing. The North-
ern Lights were also a common sight, no
doubt to the pleasure of our foreign visi-
tors. February is the coldest month of the
year here, but temperatures in Reykjavík
during the month were above average—a
smashing 1.7°C (35°F).
March wasn't any better. The island
suffered heavy snowstorms, particularly
in the north, and many roads were shut
for days, causing people to finally read
that Scandinavian thriller they got three
copies of for Christmas.
Easter came with the usual cold spells
for that time of year. April 15th is the day
by which all cars must have their winter
tires replaced with summer tires—how-
ever most people ignored that law this
year due to a hailstorm and the roads be-
ing covered in ice.
Tourist-spotting
Iceland has a lot of public holidays (or,
as the locals call them, “red days”), one
of which is The First Day of Summer
(“Sumardagurinn fyrsti,” the first Thurs-
day after April 18). Somewhat ironically,
that day almost always sees snowfall—
but not in 2014, where we had tempera-
tures going up to 14°C (!!!). By the way,
that’s about the temperature where you
start really seeing who’s a local and who’s
a tourist (hint: the locals all don shorts
and t-shirts while tourists are still decked
in full winter regalia).
The weather from there on was sur-
prisingly pleasant. People kept firing up
their BBQs, watching the Eurovision
Song Contest and being generally cheer-
ful until the month of July, where it rained
for pretty much the whole entire month,
at least on the south coast. The typical
summer weather map of Iceland usually
shows rain in the capital and clear skies
and sun in the north and east. The most
popular summer vacation for Icelanders
is thus to drive around the country; that
way you might be lucky enough to catch
maybe a bit of sun somewhere sometime.
Except when I did it last year and acci-
dentally followed the rain the whole way
around the country.
A year for goths, vampires
and most festivals
2014 was a great year for goths and vam-
pires, though! The total amount of sun-
light we had was way below average at
420 hours, which is 180 hours less than
average over the last decade.
There was a record amount of festi-
vals this year, with most of them being
very successful—all but one. The unlucky
guests at the Westfjords’ Rauðasandur
festival in July had to be rescued from
heavy winds, which were so intense that
not only were tents and loose items flying
everywhere, but outhouses as well.
It was a big year for the northern end
of Vatnajökull National Park. In July, one
of the largest recorded rockslides since
the settlement of Iceland happened next
to lake Askja, causing a tsunami that
reached 20-30 meters in height. Fortu-
nately, the rockslide happened late at
night, so there were no people in the area
at the time and no one got hurt; had it
happened earlier in the day, there were
people in the area who might not have
been able to escape.
Eruption erection
On August 16, an intense seismic swarm
started in the Bárðarbunga volcano,
where a lava tunnel began to form lat-
erally out in a northeastward direction
from the Bárðarbunga caldera. Then,
fourteen days later at about ten km north
of Vatnajökull, the lava tunnel reached
the surface, causing an eruption that is
still ongoing, four months later. If there‘s
anything Icelandic people love reading
about more than the weather, it‘s earth-
quakes and volcanic activity, so this erup-
tion seized all of our attention during the
autumn months.
After the 2010 eruption in Eyjafjal-
lajökull and the 2011 eruption in Gríms-
vötn, both scientists and the general
public have been mostly concerned about
dangers related to ash. This particular
eruption caught everyone off guard be-
cause, unlike the previous eruptions, it
wasn’t ash that caused a problem, but
rather gas pollution. There’s not a lot that
can be done when it comes to natural gas
emissions such as these, so people just
have to follow the news and try not get
too exposed to the air outside when the
wind blows in their direction. As such,
most weather-related news in Septem-
ber and October was related to pollution
from the volcano.
Thankfully most people were not af-
fected too badly by the gas, but sales of
asthma medication increased quite dra-
matically as a result. After four months
of continuous activity, the eruption’s lava
flow has now reached 1.1 km3 in volume,
the largest volume of lava produced since
Laki in 1783 (which was a slightly more
sizeable 14.7 km3). The area is still closed
off to everyone but scientists and the
press, but it is possible to book observa-
tional flights when the weather (and your
wallet) allows.
Any way the wind blows
Enough fire for now, it’s time for storms.
Usually when hurricanes from the Ca-
ribbean move over the colder waters of
the North Atlantic they die down and
we don’t really see much of them, but at
the end of August, Hurricane Cristobal
managed to make it all the way to Ice-
land. There are warnings put out in all
news media when storms like this are on
the way, so people can secure any loose
items they might have lying around out-
side. This is particularly important near
the end of summer, when there is a high
chance of stray lawn furniture all over
the place. Despite every warning, flying
trampolines are a common occurrence in
the first big autumn storms.
Winter came late this year. It was a
bit windy in October, but we had a mostly
warm November, with average tempera-
tures in Reykjavík at 5.5°C (42°F), which
is 3.2°C above the ten-year average. Ice-
landic winters are often characterized by
frequent storms, but the stormiest period
of the year turned out to be December.
Wind speeds of up to 65 m/s (234 km/h,
145 mph) were recorded in Hamars-
fjörður before the meter broke, and the
wind charts showed colours represent-
ing the highest numbers the scale can
represent. The meteorologists must have
seriously considered adding a new colour
to the scale.
Flights were cancelled and people
were asked to pick their children up from
school, and everything that could blow
away did, including rooftops and people.
A video of people in Reykjavík struggling
to walk across a road went viral, since
they were rather blown down a hill into
an underground parking lot. Fortunately,
the wind eventually died down and most
people got to enjoy a picturesque white
Christmas (including ice-rink style pave-
ments).
In summary: Mostly windy, a pretty shit-
ty summer, and rain in July. Somebody
somewhere owes us our 180 hours of sun-
light, but who cares, ELDGOS!
A Tale Of Ice And Fire
(But Mostly Wind...
And Not Much Sun)
Surely, the summer of 2015 will be the best ever. We will feast on ice cream and
lounge around in our underwear! We will figure out what shorts are for! We will
bask in the warm glow of a loving sun. This is almost certain.
Icelanders are obsessed with the weather. That shouldn’t come as a surprise
to anyone who’s ever been here: the weather is no joke. If you don‘t keep a
close eye on forecasts and weather-related news, you might miss out on the
few good days of summer, end up stuck somewhere in a snowstorm or—on
rare occasions—drive right into the latest eruption’s ash cloud. In that spirit,
we present some peaks and ebbs of 2014, as it pertained to our friendly in-
house meteorological expert.
Words by Hildur María Friðriksdóttir @hildurmf
Hildur María Friðríksdóttir is a geophysicist
at the Icelandic Met Office.
The unlucky guests
at the Westfjords’
Rauðasandur festival in
July had to be rescued
from heavy winds,
which were so intense
that not only were tents
and loose items flying
everywhere, but out-
houses as well.