Iceland - Climate
It is a saying in Iceland, as in many other countries: “If you don´t like the weather, just wait 5 minutes”. To see the Northern Lights, the time to visit is from September through March. Icelandic winters are not as cold as might be expected and the winter is in many ways a more interesting time to visit Iceland. Patience is key when it comes to the Northern Lights.
Iceland has very mild, coastal weather, stemming from the Gulf Stream. The weather is also affected by the East Greenland polar current curving south-eastwards round the north and east coasts. The average summer temperature in Reykjavik is 10.6°C/51°F in July, with average highs of 24.3°C/76°F. The average winter temperature in Reykjavik is similar to New York City's, about 0°C/32°F in January (average highs are 9.9°C/50°C). The weather can be very unpredictable and often changes in an instant.
Iceland is a beautiful country with breathtaking scenery. But each year, between 600-700 people, most of them tourists, need to be rescued from the Icelandic countryside because they have underestimated Iceland’s volatile weather and terrain. The weather in Iceland can change extremely quickly and can cause serious, even life-threatening problems for tourists who have not adequately prepared themselves.
Conservation of the environment is a high priority for Iceland, a country that depends on natural resources and their sustainable management. Given the economy's high dependence on fisheries and exports of seafood, the sustainable harvesting of living marine resources is an economic as well as an environmental priority. A quota system in fisheries, limiting the total allowable catch at a level deemed sustainable by marine scientists, is showing signs of paying off.
On the global agenda, Iceland has been a strong voice in the fight against the pollution of the oceans. Icelandic waters are among the cleanest in the world. Iceland has taken an active role in international fora on the issue of peristant organic pollutants.
Although Iceland is famous for its unspoiled natural beauty, there are areas where care must be exercised. One of the most serious environmental problems in Iceland is the loss of vegetation by wind erosion. The Icelandic Soil Conservation Service has been fighting soil erosion since 1907 with considerable success. It currently aims at revegetating sites with a total area amounting to more than 2% of the country's land area. However, the fight to halt and reverse the erosion and desertification and to advance land reclamation, will remain one of Iceland's priorities in the environmental field in coming years and decades.
Nature conservation in general is of increasing concern. Iceland has some of the few remaining large wilderness areas in Europe, and their natural features are in many ways unique. Development pressures from tourism and energy production (hydroelectric and geothermal) on wilderness areas are increasing, which calls for improved planning to reconcile nature conservation and the continuing development of Iceland's abundant clean and renewable energy sources.
Iceland's cool, oceanic climate is quite mild for its latitude of 63-66° North, thanks to the warm Gulf Stream. The summers are short but bright and the best time to visit is late May to early September – that is, if you’re planning a summer holiday. The average daytime temperature around the coast during May to September is 10-12°C (50-55°F). A warm summer day would have temperatures around 20°C. Average daily sunshine in July and August is 5-6 hours and during the summer months the nights are bright. On clear days ther are 24 hours of daylight and even the midnight sun near the Arctic Circle. However, the weather is extremely changeable and unpredictable so travellers should always be prepared for the unexpected.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
