Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Iceland in Winter: Weather, Temperatures, and Layers

I have heard and read about Iceland's temperatures being similar to those of New York City and other large, well-known northern cities. When we were looking at temperatures in Iceland in the fall (even late fall) before our winter trip to Iceland, we noticed that the temperatures in Denver were frequently much cooler than those in Reykjavik. Temperature-wise, Reykjavik and Iceland do average higher low temperatures than some of these places, but temperature is not the only factor to consider.

What we found in Iceland in the first week of January is that the strong winds made it feel much colder than the ambient temperature measurement implies. While the effect of the wind on temperature was most prevalent near glaciers and glacier lagoons when the wind swept over the frozen and near-frozen areas before hitting you, the wind was strong even in areas of Reykjavik. This was another aspect of Iceland that reminded me of the state of Wyoming in the United States, which can also see strong wind frequently. I realized how dramatic the effect of the wind on perceived temperature is in Iceland when we descended into the ice caves from on top of the glacier. It was much more comfortable inside of the ice caves than on top of the glacier and the difference was the shelter from the wind provided by the caves.

We noted that while the Denver area's lows are lower than Reykjavik's, Denver's highs can often be higher than Reykjavik's. In other words, the range of low to high temperatures in Denver can often be much wider than and completely contain the much smaller range of temperatures in Reykjavik on a given winter day. It's also worth noting that fewer number of hours with sunshine on winter days in Denver are nowhere near as short on daylight as the days in Reykjavik (we had 4 to 4.5 hours of daylight while in Iceland). We didn't see the temperatures in Reykjavik get much cooler than freezing (lows usually around 0 degrees Celsius or just -1 or -2 degrees Celsius), but it often felt colder than that when outdoors.

The most dangerous part of Iceland's weather while we were there was not the cold, but was the wind. Not only did it make it extremely cold to be on or near the glaciers, but more importantly the wind reduced visibility significantly on the roads and led to airport and road closures. There were times when strong wind gusts pushed me a foot or two until I got myself braced against it. The wind would also blow snow across the roads and in some places decent size drifts of snow turned to ice could make things a bit dicey.

When you read almost any blog on Iceland in winter (and often even in other seasons), you read about the need for wearing layers. This is important because the weather can change quickly and dramatically. Layers are also important because when it's cool and windy outside, it's often quite warm in buildings and buses and other vehicles. When one is going between the outdoors and vehicles and buildings, the temperature can change quite dramatically. The buildings are largely heated with relatively low cost geothermal energy and are often quite warm.

For my layers, I wrote a long-sleeve shirt with an undershirt at all times. I also had a fleece pullover to wear over my long-sleeve shirt and under the coat for particularly cold situations (such as being on the glacier). For our coats, we purchased coats from The North Face store during a Black Friday sale based on what we read in the blog post "What To Pack & What To Wear In Iceland." The coats we used for the Iceland in winter trip are the men's Gotham Jacket III and the women's Reign on Down Parka (windproof and waterproof jackets/coats are highly recommend for Iceland in the winter). I also used North Face gloves (Men's Montana Etip GTX Gloves) and we bought quality waterproof hiking boots at Cabela's.

There are obvious safety issues associated with Iceland's weather, but the most common effect of potentially severe winter weather is its impact on planned excursions and activities. The weather can impact flights, buses, and all types of plans one might make for a visit to Iceland. I outlined in some detail the effects of Iceland winter weather on our own trip in my first post on Iceland.

It is prudent to have ready access to the web sites or other contact information for tour companies and other vendors you are working with in Iceland to find out if particular trips are canceled or delayed. For example, a major Iceland tour provided is Reykjavik Excursions (they provide the FlyBus airport transports, for example), and they have a cancellations page at https://www.re.is/tour-cancellation/. It's even possible that weather could force things to happen earlier than planned such as moving flights out to an earlier time.

The following links are to some articles about weather conditions in Iceland during the week we were there and the week after (the week of my writing of this blog post). Even reading just the headlines give a good idea of Iceland weather's most common effect: forcing changing of even the best-laid plans. Note also the local sources cited available in English (Iceland Monitor, Iceland Review, and Reykjavik Grapevine).

In addition to Iceland Monitor and Iceland Review, the best source for current weather details in Iceland is arguably https://en.vedur.is/. Iceland's beauty is arguably even more spectacular in winter and there are some activities you can only do in the winter, but you definitely have to be prepared for plans to be changed whether you like it or not when traveling in Iceland in the winter.

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