A new March maximum temperature record in Iceland

The last week has been warm in Iceland, especially in the north and east. Daily station records have been exceeded by the hundreds and also daily countrywide maxima on a few days. On Thursday 29 March the temperature at the farm Kvísker on the Southeast coast the maximum temperature reached 20.5 degrees C. This is a new March record for the whole of Iceland exceeding the old one by the large margin of 1.7 deg C.

The old record, 18.8 deg C, was set on 28 March 2000 in the town of Eskifjörður in the Eastern Fjords.

The individual monthly temperature maxima in Iceland are:

Mon	Year	Month	Day	maximum °C		Station
January	2000	1	15	19,6		Dalatangi	East
February	1998	2	17	18,1		Dalatangi	East
March	2012	3	29	20,5		Kvísker	Southeast
April	2007	4	29	23,0		Ásbyrgi	Northeast
May	1992	5	26	25,6		Vopnafjörður	Northeast
June	1939	6	22	30,5		Teigarhorn	East
July	1946	7	17	30,0		Hallormsstaður	East
August	2004	8	11	29,2		Egilsstaðaflugvöllur	East
September	1949	9	12	26,0		Dalatangi	East
October	1973	10	1	23,5		Dalatangi	East
November	1999	11	11	23,2		Dalatangi	East
December	2001	12	14	18,4		Sauðanesviti	North

The official statement of the Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Dalatangi is a lighthouse on an peninsula at the East coast. It often experiences short „heat waves“ caused by decending warm air aloft along the very steep mountainside on the peninsula. The Dalatangi winter maxima have no diurnal preferences and often occur in the middle of the night. The station is however one of the most oceanic in Iceland the annual range of monthly temperatures is only 8.2 degrees C. At a few oceanic stations the heat waves of winter occasionally offer the highest maxima of the year. Later, I will give a list of these at this blog.

The station Sauðanesviti (Sauðanes lighthouse) is on the tip of a peninsula in the North, the topographical conditions are similar to the ones at Dalatangi.

The topography at Teigarhorn in the East is also similar to Dalatangi and Sauðanesviti. The warm descending winds are not as common as in the other locations, but the aspect to the noon sun in summer is more favourable.

Kvísker is located near the highest mountain in Iceland, Öræfajökull (a dormant volcano). The maxima at Kvísker typically occur in westerly winds blowing along the side and downwards the slope near the station.

The remaining stations are all located in the valleys of the northeast and east. Vopnafjörður at the seaside in a broad fjord, Ásbyrgi in a very broad valley, but not far from the coast and Hallormsstaður and Egilsstaðir airport well inland in the largest valley of the East.