Iceland freakishly warm, featuring mainly pleasant temperatures

Floods and rumors of floods continue to dot the land as we crawl through midsummer. In Iceland, parts of the country are dealing with temperatures as warm as has been observed before.

Weather Watch

Gulf disturbance. Hurricane hunter aircraft are scheduled to investigate an area of disturbed weather moving into the northern Gulf of Mexico. While organization of note is uncertain, the storm is expected to deliver a lot of rain to the region. Up to about 5 inches is currently forecast in Louisiana, with even heavier totals just offshore.

Iceland heat. A number of locations broke all-time record highs in Iceland on Tuesday. Those numbers ranged from 72 to 85 degrees, (22 to 29.5 Celsius). At the highest end, readings weren’t far from the national record for warmth of 30.5 C. The temperatures have caused rapid melt of glaciers on the island, leading to rising rivers, with more of the same expected Wednesday.

Lightning links

Firenado forms over Deer Creek Fire in Utah. (Apple Valley News Now)

Midsummer reflections

We’re past the halfway point of meteorological summer — just barely, but it counts. As noted yesterday, the 124 in Death Valley on Monday was the hottest on earth so far this year.

The biggest spikes in heat for the Lower 48 have been the recent one (July 13 peak coverage), another that maximized June 25 and a third that reached its greatest scale on July 9.

California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas and Utah have all had highs at or above 110 degrees. A preliminary count shows 43 states have reached or surpassed 100, and so has D.C.

About

Weekday morning newsletter by a journalist/forecaster. Connecting weather and climate change dots while occasionally stirring the pot.

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