Sea Ice Nearly Reaching Iceland’s Coast

As predicted, sea ice from southeast Greenland has stretched close enough to Iceland’s shores to prompt the Icelandic Coast Guard to take a closer look.

The sea ice was detected branching off of Greenland’s east coast last Tuesday, making its way closer to the Westfjords of Iceland at a rate of about ten nautical miles a day.

Today, that sea ice is now only 12 nautical miles from the northern tip of the Westfjords, the Icelandic Coast Guard reports.

“The danger is that not all ships are equally equipped to sail through ice,” meteorologist Óli Þór Árnason told RÚV, adding that the passage is likely to close more over the coming days.

“This is the usual time of year when the sea ice is closest to the country, in May and June, when southwesterly winds from Greenland move the ice closer to us,” he said. “It’s happened that sailing lanes in the west have closed, but I think it’s unlikely to happen this time.”

The ice is expected to melt away the closer it gets to the actual coast, so readers should not expect an ice bridge to Greenland forming any time soon.
Photos: Icelandic Coast Guard