Decreasing wind and snowfall in the northwest overnight.
Becoming southwesterly 10-18 m/s today. Widely snowshowers, but clearing in Northeast- and East-Iceland. Temperature around or above freezing.
Forecast made 19.03.2024 00:25
Blizzard in Westfjords until late tonight, see weather warnings. Much calmer weather there today, but still some chance of strong northeasterly wind.
Prepared by the meteorologist on duty 19.03.2024 00:25
If the map and the text forecast differs, then the text forecast applies
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Preliminary results
Size | Time | Quality | Location |
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4.4 | 18 Mar 00:45:45 | Checked | 2.8 km NNE of Bárðarbunga |
2.8 | 17 Mar 18:46:55 | Checked | 30.7 km S of Kolbeinsey |
2.5 | 18 Mar 12:23:19 | Checked | 3.1 km SE of Bárðarbunga |
Today, March 18th an M4.4 earthquake was detected in the Bárðarbunga caldera. This is the largest event sine January 17th when an M4.1 was detected. Earthquakes in Bárðarbunga are common.
A volcanic fissure eruption started between Hagafell and Stóra-Skógfell on the 16th of March at 20:23.
Few earthquakes have been detected in the area today.
The only place with activity is now in the southern end of the newly formed fissure and has been steady during the evening and early night.
The lava tongue in the South is now almost at a stop and the distance to the road at Sudurstrandavegur and is between 340-450 m. Another Lava front which was moving to the west looks to have stopped about 1800m away from the water supply pipe from Svartsengi power-plant.
Written by a specialist at 18 Mar 07:54 GMT
Earthquake activity throughout the country is described in a weekly summary that is written by a Natural Hazard Specialist. The weekly summary is published on the web every Tuesday. It covers the activity of the previous week in all seismic areas and volcanic systems in the country. If earthquake swarms are ongoing or significant events such as larger earthquakes have occurred during the week, they are specifically discussed. More
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Due to failure we have turned off the service with the measurement stations. It is possible to use in the mean time.
Written by a specialist at 08 Mar 14:06 GMT
The avalanche bulletin is at a regional scale. It does not necessarily represent avalanche danger in urban areas.
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Updataed 18. March at 18:30 UTC
The Icelandic Meteorological Office has updated the hazard assessment to account for the latest data. The new hazard assessment takes effect today, Monday, March 18, and is valid until March 20, unless the situation changes. Zone 3 (the Sundhnúkur crater row), where the volcanic eruption is still ongoing, remains unchanged, with the hazard level remaining very high. The hazard level is assessed to remain high in Zone 1 (Svartsengi) due to gas emissions and lava flows. The same applies to Zone 4 (Grindavík), where the danger due to sinkholes above fissures, fault movements, lava flows, and gas emissions is considered high. Zone 5 has been downgraded to considerable risk (orange) and Zone 7 is now downgraded to some risk.
Read moreThe weather in 2023 was mostly favorable. It was calm, dry, relatively little snow and stormy days were quite uncommon. However, the year was cooler compared to the most recent years. The average nationwide temperature was 0.1°C colder than the average temperature between 1991 and 2020, and 0.4°C colder than the average temperature of the last ten years. It was relatively coldest in the North, while the Southwest and Southern coast were relatively warmer. The weather was particularly cold in the beginning of the year and again in March. June, on the other hand was exceptionally warm in the North and East. It was the warmest June on record in many places in those regions. The year was relatively dry, with precipitation below average across most of the country. There were several dry periods during the year, such as in March and July, but there were also periods of heavy rain in between. May and June were particularly wet and gloomy in the southern and western regions.
Read moreOn 10 November 2023 the town of Grindavík in Iceland was evacuated as massive amounts of magma suddenly flowed into a magma filled crack that propagated underneath the town. Magma was emplaced in a 'vertical sheet' type intrusion in the Earth's crust. An international team of scientists explains the formation of the intrusion, and conditions for ultra-rapid flow into cracks, in a new publication in the prestigious scientific journal Science.
Read moreUpdated 23 January at 9:00 UTC
Since the glacial flood reached its peak in the river Gígjukvísl approximately a week ago, the water level has been decreasing and is now comparable to what it was before the flood. The seismic tremor measured on the seismometer at Grímsfjall has also declined, with seismic noise now back to normal levels. Since last week Monday, 21 earthquakes have been recorded in Grímsvötn, including two earthquakes exceeding magnitude two.
Read moreThere is evidence of recent changes in the deformation data (cGNSS) around Askja. The deformation rate has decreased since the beginning of August and the signal has flattened at several stations within or around the caldera. At this stage it is uncertain what process is causing this pressure reduction, possibly the source of the inflation has been shut off or it could be related to an outflow of magmatic fluids.
Read moreUpdated on 29 August, at 17:00
Hydrological measurements in Skaftá at Sveinstindur show that the increase in discharge has slowed down.The discharge is estimated 620 m3/s at 15:00 compared to 600 m3/s at 9:00 this morning.
Read moreIce in the ocean around Iceland has mostly arrived from afar.
It comes here from the Denmark strait, which connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean, between Iceland and Greenland. Sometimes the ice comes directly from north to the northeast corner of Iceland, but all the ice comes from the same source: the East-Greenland current which flows from the Arctic Ocean due south along the east coast of Greenland, passing northwest Iceland.
Read more