Jökull - 01.12.1986, Síða 71

weather was often foggy. In Dalasýsla, there were
night frosts throughout the summer, up to the time
when the Sheriff wrote his report (19 August). Heavy
snow fell at the beginning of July. In the mornings,
around the end of July, the earth was often white with
rime-frost. On 10 August there was severe night frost
and on 16 August much snow fell. In the northwest
the summer was fairly wet. In Barðastrandarsýsla, for
example, although very little rain fell from the end of
October 1781 to 15 June 1782, from that time there
was much rain and bad weather from the southwest.
The autumn season was mainly rather cold, but it
was different in different districts. Jón Jónsson
recorded a very cold September, and said that all hope
of a harvest ceased on 18 September, there being few
parallels to the present severe season. It was also
mainly cold and frosty in October. In Norður-Múla-
sýsla the weather was said to have been harsh through
to November. The Sheriff s report for Snæfellsnessýsla
stated that, at the beginning öf September, there oc-
curred rain with southerly winds which lasted to 20
September. This stopped the hay harvest. Later there
was frost and snow with a little rain in between which
changed to ice. This lastéd to 2 October. After that
there were southerly winds with occasional rain. From
mid October the weather changed to northerly winds
With frost and snow. In Kjósarsýsla the frost was said
to have been felt early, even before 22 September, but
the weather was dry so there was a good harvest. This
drY frost lasted to 2 October when there was heavy
ram for four or five days. After that there was frost
and snow so the livestock had to be housed. The
autumn weather in Mýrasýsla was also said to have
been cold and dry.
1783
The eruption year, 1783, was also a year of difficult
climate. In the north, there was a severe winter from
New Year to the end of March. Jón Jónsson wrote
that it was considered severe because of snow, and
also because there was no pasture for the livestock due
fo frozen ground. Some sea ice came to Eyjafjord in
the week of 9 to 15 March. In the eastern districts,
large amounts of snow were reported. The Sheriff of
Suður-Múlasýsla wrote:
Last November and to mid December the weather was
very pleasant so the livestock did not need to be fed, but
from 20 December to the end of March, that is, about
fourteen weeks, there have been virtually continual
southerly and easterly winds which have also brought
heavy snowfalls which have sometimes lasted four or
five days together, so here in this eastern part of the
country right to Eyjafjall there are such amounts of
snow that old people can scarcely remember its like.
Thodal, writing from Bessastaðir, confirmed this
severe winter in the northwest, north and east saying:
Winter severe in ísafjarðarsýsla, Húnavatnssýsla, but
especially in Þingeyjar and Múla districts. Hard also in
Skaftafellssýsla, but nevertheless somewhat milder, and
the need not so great.
In the south, however, the weather was said to be
often calm with tolerable frosts and not much snow.
In the west, it seems to have been fairly cold. A typi-
cal account is from Mýrasýsla:
Winter cold and dry with frequent northerly winds,
although the frost never became severe.
The Sheriff of Dalasýsla wrote that conditions were
very difficult, especially from 20 January to Easter,
not because the weather in itself was so very severe,
but because, after a brief thaw, a severe frost followed
so the ground everywhere was covered with ice in-
stead of snow and this prevented the livestock from
feeding out-of-doors.
In the south, the spring weather was mostly quite
mild and good. In the north, it was variable. In the
east, and some western districts, however, this season
was quite cold. The Sheriff of Suður-Múlasýsla, for
example, wrote that:
.. . in many ways it was a hard spring. Although April
was quite good to the 20th, cold weather began again at
the end of the month, and lasted into summer. The sea
ice came in May, although not in any great amount.
In Vestur-Skaftafellssýsla, the season was said to be
unusually good.
The first signs of the volcanic eruption in Vestur-
Skaftafellssýsla were some weak tremors felt in May,
and then strong earthquakes in southeast Iceland in
early June. The eruption actually began on Whit Sun-
day, 8 June. A chronicle of eruption and related
events in Vestur-Skaftafellssýsla to the end of 1783
has been compiled by Sigurður Þórarinsson (1984).
This year there was also a marine volcanic eruption,
on a much smaller scale, off Reykjancsj as well as
volcanic activity in Vatnajökull.
The effects of the Skaftáreldar eruption (mainly in
association with the falls of tephra) were felt and seen
all over Iceland, and many of the descriptions of the
summer this year were, naturally enough, taken up
with the effects of the eruption. Some accounts of
summer weather and eruption effects in different parts
of Iceland follow.
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