Meteorologist Trausti Jónsson says this May has been one of the coldest in 100 years. Trausti told RÚV that locals are correct in their feeling that this month has been unusually cold, rainy, and snowy.
“At this time of year there is normally fine weather[…] And people are even sitting out on their decks and such. But there have not been any conditions for that this May,” Trausti stated.
While temperatures during the first three weeks of May have been only slightly colder than average, there has been much more precipitation than is typical at this time of year in Iceland. “We have to go a few decades back to find this much precipitation at this time as there has been [this May].” Trausti says this quantity of precipitation has only been exceeded four times before in Iceland.
Trausti assured, however, that this month’s weather does not necessarily foreshadow a cold and rainy summer. Of the ten worst May months over the past hundred years or so, “around half of the following summers are worse than average and half are better than average.”
