Veður - say it in Icelandic, and it sounds like the word 'weather'. The Icelandic Weather will be an important factor for any who visit the country. I have experienced most icelandic weather on my previous visits, often in the same day.
The site contains rather more information than just the weather though. Handily, a small flag in the top toolbar will translate the site into English for you.
It starts with the obvious weather information: winds, precipitation and temperatures are the basics here. Scroll through the timeline to see how your day might pan out.
Across the top toolbar is a range of options which will take you far beyond the realms of the usual weather sites.
- Weather
- Seismicity - maps of recent earthquakes at different scales
- Hydrology - flooding, rivers and glacier measurements
- Avalanches - including the nature of the risk
- Climate - explores the potential impacts of climate change.
- Sea ice - sea ice around the coast
- Pollution - includes air quality monitoring
It's handy to have the Weather app on your phone, as the weather changes very quickly and is also very localised, affected by wind flow over and around topographic features, and with altitude of course. The high road out of Reykjavik down to the coastal plain can often be closed by sudden snowstorms or high winds, for example, and many interior roads will be closed throughout the winter.2020 marks a special occasion for the agency, as it is the centenary of the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
One thing the Office doesn't have is a strong educational element. This could be a future project perhaps - I may well work on this at some point during 2020.
If anyone has particular things they would like to contribute to this post from their own experiences of the Icelandic weather, including alternative apps or websites on the same theme, please add a comment or contact me via Twitter @GeoBlogs.
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