Home-page - Icelandic Meteorological Office

The year 2020 was stormy. The average wind speed was remarkably high and number of windy days was unusually high.

The annual mean temperature at all stations was higher than the 1961 to 1990 mean, but below the average of the last ten years. It was relatively warmer in the East and Northeast but colder in the Southwest and West.

The year was wet in the North and East. The annual precipitation in Akureyri has never been higher since the beginning of registration in 1928.

From 15 to 18 December 2020, several landslides hit the town of Seyðisfjörður, destroying or damaging more than 10 buildings. Thankfully, there were no injuries. The largest landslide occurred on 15 December, and it ranks as the most damaging landslide to have affected an urban area in Iceland.

An article recently published in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science on glacier changes in Iceland describes changes in the volume and mass of the Icelandic glaciers since they reached historical maximum extent at the end of the so-called Little Ice Age shortly before 1900. The results of a number of studies covering about 99% of the  glacier area are summarized in the article, which is a collaborative effort of many glaciologists at several institutes that conduct measurements and research on glaciers in Iceland.

Last week a series of earthquakes occurred on the Reykjanes Peninsula, between Fagradalsfjall and Kleifarvatn - the largest of which was a magnitude 5.6 earthquake in the vicinity of Núpshíðarháls, which occurred at 13:43 on 20th October. The maps displayed here show ground deformation associated with movement on faults during the period 16th-22nd October.

Seismic activity has decreased significantly in recent days. About 180 earthquakes of magnitude 2.2 or less were detected the last two days, for comparison, during the first 24 hours following the 5.6 earthquake in Núpshlíðarháls, about 1700 earthquakes were detected in the area.