The past weekend was exceptionally cold throughout all of Iceland. Sharp winds ravaged the Western coast, while snowfall and hail hit the East and South.
On Sunday, the ground was white with snow all around the highlands in Central Iceland.
“Everything was white. When we got up at 9AM the snowfall was mostly over, but by the time we left, around noon, it had started up again,” Þorgerður Eva Þórhallsdóttir, a member of the Search and Rescue team in Skagafjörður, North Iceland, told Morgunblaðið.
“I think this is rather abnormal weather for the middle of the summer. It wasn’t like this last year.”
Then yesterday, Selfoss residents were hit with an unexpected hailstorm—as were the inhabitants of East Iceland.
Meteorologist Elín Björk Jónasdóttir, at the Icelandic Met Office, told Morgunblaðið that the hailstorms could be explained by unstable winds which are currently sweeping the country, and are not a cause for concern.
“The droplets form in cold air, at below freezing temperatures, and are still cold and unmelted when they reach the surface of the earth.”
