Thunder And Lightning Across The Westfjörds

The people of the Westfjörds were treated to the uncommon experience of thunder and lightning yesterday, and some were able to capture the moment on video.

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While uncommon, thunder and lightning in Iceland is in fact more common than most might suspect. As the creation of thunder and lightning requires warm air meeting cool air, it is far more common in the southwest of the country, and not as often seen in the north.

A map from the Icelandic Met Office shows the number of lightning strikes in the North Atlantic. As can be seen, there was quite the cluster over the Westfjords last night.

The weather in the area this weekend looks significantly calmer, so this may be the last they see of lightning for a while.

Local Westfjörds resident Helgi Pálsson captured the situation last night, in photos and videos, which he then posted to Facebook.