Iceland review - 2015, Qupperneq 76

74 ICELAND REVIEW
oPiNioN
postponed. Close to 4,000 air passengers were stuck as both domestic
and international flights were delayed. luckily, not a single person was
hurt in the Category 3 hurricane strength storm. The strongest wind
recorded was at Ennisháls south of Hólmavík in the Strandir region,
the eastern West Fjords, howling at a speed of 147 km/h (93 mph).
It was warm in the bad weather. It only started to snow in Reykjavík
after midnight, when December had arrived. November was unseason-
ably warm in Iceland, the warmest in decades, and in some places the
warmest since weather observations began 150 years ago. On Iceland’s
northernmost inhabited island, Grímsey, the average temperature in
November was close to 4°C (39°F), when normally it should have been
below zero (32°F).
The biggest damage caused by the storm, emotionally at least, was
to the Christmas tree in Reykjavík, a gift from the people of Oslo, the
capital of Norway. The top of the tree broke off as gale force winds hit
austurvöllur, the capital’s main square. *
on road 427 connecting Þorlákshöfn and grindavík, reykjanes peninsula.
two horses seek shelter under eyjafjöll mountains,
South iceland.