Jökull - 01.12.1969, Side 79

Fig. 8.
DriEt ice off the
north coast of
Iceland on Fe-
bruary 28, 1965.
The Icelandic
Coast Guard re-
connaissance
flight.
Þéttleiki —
Degree oí ice
coverage.
most of the time and drove the main bulk
of the ice away towards the west and north-
west. See Fig. 10. Only on the east coast of
Vestfirðir and in the fjords of the northeast
coast ice remained pressed to the shores by the
wincl and a few harbours were closed for this
reason. This ice drove off to sea with great
rapidity as the wind turned into the west the
last days of May. Thereby the ice was gone
for goocl this year except for scattered grow-
lers and floes wliich remained in Hrútafjörð-
ur and Miðfjörður until the latter part of
June. But still the after effects of the ice were
felt. in the low temperature of the surface wat-
ers of the sea, which caused considerable low-
ering of the mean summer temperature in
Iceland, especially in the northern and eastern
districts.
SUMMARY
The observations made here are strongly in
favor of tlie opinion that the ice in Icelandic
waters in 1965 was due to unusually strong
westerly winds north of Iceland in February
that year. Such has undoubtedly often been
the case in past centuries. However, it must
not be ignored that the amount of ice present
in the tracts east of Greenland must also be
a deciding factor. It may be pointed out that
the two months preceding the arrival of the
ice in 1968 there was no westerly wincl north
Fig. 9. Geostrophic wincl components near Rifstangi on the northeast coast of Iceland in 1965.
Continuous line N wind, dotted line W wind. Broken line shows the west wind between NE
Greenland and the NW coast of Iceland. The curves are worked from tliree days means.
JÖKULL 19. ÁR 75