From Iceland — Unusually High Precipitation In Iceland Last Weekend

Unusually High Precipitation In Iceland Last Weekend

Published November 19, 2018

Andie Sophia Fontaine
Photo by
mila.is

If you had plans to go out last weekend but were relegated to the indoors due to the stormy weather, there were other reasons apart from the gale-force winds that made the storm so unusual.

Meterologist Trausti Jóns­son points out that there was also an unusual amount of rain and snow that was dumped on Iceland over the weekend.

Over the course of 48 hours, Saturday and Sunday, 35.5mm and 47.7mm of rain respectively fell upon Iceland. This shattered previous records set for a single November day in Iceland; 46.8mm in 1902 and 45.8mm in 1905, respectively.

It should also be noted that it was unusually warm during these days, with only two days in November 1999 measuring warmer temperatures than what we saw last weekend.

Iceland has felt the effects of climate change fairly acutely in recent years, having an impact on everything from the rapid volume loss of glaciers to the elevation of coastal towns. As such, greater precipitation and warmer temperatures will likely continue for the time being.

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