The Final Conference of the Nordic Center of Excellence SVALI was held 4-5 June at the Ilulissat Climate Days in Greenland, focusing on the topics of changes of the Arctic and North-Atlantic land ice as well as glacier and ice cap changes, process understanding and impacts on sea level.

The Ilulissat Climate Days especially address recent, ongoing and future changes in the ice in and around Greenland, with a special focus on the effects for the Greenland society.

The year 2014 was very warm, precipitation was abundant and the sunshine duration during most of the summer was considerably below average.

In spite of the high temperatures the weather was changeable and often dull.

The first months of the year were especially wet in the North and East and the weather was difficult. In the west it was very dry at the same time with favourable weather conditions.

The summer was warm and considered fine in the North and East but in the south it was very wet and dull.

The autumn was fine, November extraordinarily warm, but the year ended with an unruly and rather cold December.

The climate and hydrology of Iceland are highly variable due to natural conditions. Significant changes in these factors over the last 15 years are in harmony with the future scenarios represented and affirmed in the latest IPCC summary report, AR5. The main purpose of IMO is to contribute towards security in society by monitoring, analyzing, interpreting, informing; providing warnings and forecasts and predicting natural hazards. It is important to keep the infrastructure strong so that IMO may fulfill its role.

The weather in Iceland was highly unusual in 2010. This applies especially to the South and West parts of the country where the year was one of the warmest and driest on record and the snowfall was unusually light. The barometric pressure reached the highest annual value on record. The climate was very favourable and windstorms markedly fewer than usual.

The weather was favourable in 2008. The summer half of the year, May to September was unusually warm in the South and West. October was the only cold month of the year.

This has been a period of a general rise in temperatures, interrupted by two cold periods. The late 19th century cold period was colder than a corresponding period in mid to late 20th century.

During 2007, warmer conditions that have prevailed since 2000 dominated again.

The year was generally favourable and warm. In the South and West the temperature was about 1.1°C above the 1961-1990 normal and 1.3 to 1.8°C above normal in the North and East. The average temperature in Reykjavik was 5.4°C. It ranks as the eleventh warmest year in Reykjavik since the inception of continuous measurements there, in 1870.

Evaluation of the history of climate in Iceland since the settlement has been ongoing for more than two hundred years. Hannes Finnsson, the bishop of Skálholt wrote the first scientific treatise on the subject in 1796 (Finnsson, 1796).

The weather was on the whole favourable, but less settled than during the previous three years. The temperature was above the 1961-1990 normal, about 0.7 to 0.9°C in most areas, but 0.3 to 0.6°C in the Southeast.