July - a warm and sunny month in Iceland

July was both warm and sunny in most of Iceland. A small part of the East had temperatures just above average, in most other areas the month was one of the 10 warmest months of July.

In Vestmannaeyjar off the southern coast this July was the warmest since the station was moved to its present location in 1921. Temperature measurements, however, were done at another location at a lower elevation prior to that from 1877. And during 1869 to 1877 (unofficial) measurements were made at the third location. Older measurements exist for Vestmannaeyjar (during the 1840s) but they were clearly contaminated by the exposure of sunlight during summer. Since 2003, measurements have been made at two locations allowing the calculation of a site adjusted series back to 1877 (and unofficially back to 1869). This shows that July 1880 was probably about equally as warm as July now (2012).

The sun has been shining in the west and north as never before. The number of bright sunshine hours was well above average in Reykjavík and within 1 hour of the July record in Akureyri. But a look at the sum of the last three months reveals an exceptional situation at both stations. This period is the sunniest at both stations since the beginning of registration, in Reykjavík in 1911 and in 1928 in Akureyri. In Akureyri the old record (from 1939) was exceeded by 120 hours of sunshine and the total for the first seven months of the year is already close to the average annual total.

The precipitation in July was below average in all districts but not quite so as in May and June.

Even though the weather has been warm, days with maximum temperature above 20 deg C have been few and the Reykjavík absolute maximum of the summer is still below 19 deg C.

The month also brought the lowest July pressure ever recorded in Iceland (see a separate entry). Even so, the average monthly pressure was above the long-term mean.