Heatwave in Iceland
I don't think our outdoor thermometer on the bedroom window has ever shown such a high temperature in its entire life here.
I was already impressed when the reading approached the 86 °F (30 °C) mark yesterday (July 14th) shortly after 11 a.m. The thermometer reached its peak at around 1:30 a.m., at about 93 °F (34 °C). And the thermometer wasn't even in the sun yet...!
Well, the official temperatures from the weather agency's measuring stations were somewhat lower, with a maximum temperature just under 30°C at a measuring station about 30 km away from us.
We're currently experiencing a heat wave (hitabylgja) in Iceland. While the previous national heat record of 86.9 °F (30.5 °C) from June 1939 hasn't been reached, even the 89.6 °F (29.5 °C) measured yesterday at the Hjarðarland weather station is quite unusual by Icelandic standards. To date, temperatures of 86.6 °F (30.0 °C) or higher have only been officially recorded five times in Iceland.
It is currently unusually warm in many parts of Iceland, and previous temperature records have been broken at numerous weather stations across the country. Temperatures frequently exceeded 77 °F (25 °C), with five stations even recording temperatures above 82 °F (28 °C) (including Skálholt and Lyngdalsheiði). In Selfoss, the Meteorological Institute reported a temperature of 83.7 °F (27.7 °C). Even in Reykjavík , the temperature exceeded 70 °F (21 °C) for the first time this year; the Icelandic Meteorological Office recorded a temperature of 71.2 °F (21.8 °C).
The highest temperature in the country was measured yesterday (July 14th, 2025) at 85.1 °F (29.5 °C) in Hjarðarland.
Veðurathugunarstöðin á Hjarðarlandi
Hjarðarland (the green dot in the north of the map) is a farm in the municipality of Árnessýsla in South Iceland, located on road 35 (Biskupstungnabraut), about 9 km from the Geysir area.
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| Hjarðarland (Source: vedur.is) |
Helgi grew up on the Holtakot farm and, starting in 1949, built his own farm, Hjarðarland, on part of his parents' land. The farm's main house was built in the following years by Helgi and his wife, Sigríður Lovísa Sigtryggsdóttir (1918-2002).
The weather observation station in Hjarðarland has existed since 1990, and in its current form since 2004. Kolbrún Ósk Sæmundsdóttir and Egill Jónsson had lived here with their children since 1988 and took over the farm in 2004 after Helgi's death.
It is often very warm in Hjarðarland and the place is considered a so-called "heitur reitur", a "hotspot".
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| Source: MBL.is from 01.08.2019 |
Already on August 1st, 2019, an article about Kolbrún Ósk 's work as a farmer and meteorologist on the Hjarðarland farm appeared in the magazine Morgunblaðið, when it came to the unusually warm summer of 2019 with temperatures there reaching up to 80 °F (26.5 °C).
The highest temperature ever recorded at this weather station was 83.3 °F (28.5 °C), measured on August 10th, 2004. Yesterday's temperature of 85.1 °F (29.5 °C) was thus the highest temperature ever recorded at this station - and Hjarðarland was officially the hottest place in the country yesterday.
The national temperature record for all of Iceland:
86.9 °F (30.5 °C) on June 22nd, 1939
The highest temperature ever recorded in Iceland was 86.9 °F (30.5 °C). This maximum temperature was measured at the Teigarhorn weather station on Thursday, June 22nd, 1939. On the same day, the Kirkjubæjarklaustur weather station recorded 86.4 °F (30.2 °C) - the second-highest temperature ever recorded in Iceland.
Teigarhorn is located on the Berufjörður fjord, about 4 km from Djúpivogur in the municipality of Múlaþing (marked here in red) in Austurland (East Iceland). Systematic meteorological observations have been conducted here since 1881.
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| Source: wikipedia |
The weather forecast for the coming days
It's warm again today; our electronic outdoor thermometer currently reads 76.80 °F (24.89 °C). But today it's cloudy, it even rained briefly earlier, and rain is forecast again this evening.
And from tomorrow we should have normal Icelandic summer weather again - below 60 °F (15 °C) and rain.
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| Source: yr.no |
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