Rit (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.06.1939, Blaðsíða 14

14
the Westmann Islands; indeed the 0° January isotherm
lies north of the Westmann Islands, or as is said, between
the mainland and the islands, and this explains the com-
paratively great difference in the spread of arctic plants
in the same kind of plant formations in the Westmann
Islands and elsewhere in the country, cf. p. 00.
We also see from the tables that the rainfall is great,
the average annual rainfall 1375 mm, and that most of it
comes in the winter months. Snow only falls on 47 days
of the year and does not lie long as can be seen from the
number of days free from snowfall, 290 days a year. The
average force of the wind is 5.0, and there is often a gale,
otherwise this wind force seems to have no great effect
on the vegetation where the ground is otherwise damp
enough.
changes of weather from day to day but little difference
between summer and winter.
The climate is on the whole very unsettled with great
Table 3, the climate of Lækjamót, shows an average
rainfall of 450 mm, average temperature of 2.0°, but an
average wind force of 2.5.
This shows clearly the great difference between the
climate of the north of the country and that of the West-
mann Islands, and the Gulf stream and the difference in
situation with regard to the sea are to be thanked for this.
Table 4, the climate of the Faroe Islands, shows a great
resemblance to the climate of the Westmann Islands. But
the rainfall is rather less, the temperature of the sea al-
most the same, a difference of only 0.1° on the yearly
average, the summer temperature is lower, but the winter
temperature higher, so that the greatest difference be-
tween the average monthly temperatures is, in the Faroe
Islands 9.5° — 3.8° =5.7°, but in the Westmann Islands
10.1° — 0.6° =9.5°.