I normally write about earthquakes and volcanoes in Iceland. This is a little change from that. Starting tomorrow (20 and 21. January 2023) there’s a flood risk in all of Iceland as there’s going to be a sudden warm and there’s a lot of snow and rivers have frozen over in last few weeks in Iceland. There’s a lot of flood expected all over Iceland, along with risk of avalanches from mountains and other snow and rain and water related floods. Travelling might get risky or impossible because of flooding and melting snow.
Continue reading “Flood risk in Iceland on 20 and 21. January 2023 because of sudden warming after long time period of freezing weather”
Stronger harmonic tremor reported in Fagradalsfjall mountain eruption
Yesterday (15-April-2021) it was reported (late) that harmonic tremor seems to have been increasing in the eruption since midnight. This normally happens if new craters have opened up. The weather is really bad at the eruption site currently so viewing the eruption with any web camera is difficult if not impossible. Rúv web cameras failed last night because of the weather that has been seeing wind peaks up to 41 meter/second with heavy rain. Current weather forecast is that the weather is not going to start improving until late today (Friday 16-April-2021). The increased tremor might be weather but weather is in general easy to filter out and doesn’t affect the lower bands (0.5 – 1Hz) that much as it does higher bands (2 – 4hz). What is happening won’t be clear until the weather starts getting better.
Information about the volcano Krýsuvík.
News and web cameras that might work
Órói aukist en aðstæður óljósar (mbl.is, Icelandic)
Gosið í Geldingadölum í beinni (web camera, mbl.is) – The fog cover sometimes breaks a little on this web camera.
Weather warning for South to North Iceland
Tomorrow (Sunday 13-March-2016) extremely bad weather is expected on south to north Iceland. The weather is also not going to be good in other parts of Iceland, but it is going to be far worse in south Iceland, western Iceland and north-western Iceland. With wind reaching 32m/s (115km/h) and with far stronger wind gusts. Today the weather has also not been good, but tomorrow it is going to be worse. Roads are going to get closed, as did happen today (12-March-2016). If you are in Iceland follow the closures since in this type of weather a rescue mission might not be possible due the the weather. The rescue crews might not even attempt reaching stuck people if it comes down to it. Since this strong wind is going to be followed by a warm weather and heavy snow melt at the same time, there is a risk of local floods in the next 24 hours.
Its going to be bad weather tomorrow. Follow the advice given in this weather. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
This is only the weather forecast today. Tomorrow might get a lot worse if the weather forecast is off, that often happens in Iceland due to random factors of nature.
Weather warning for Iceland 30-December-2015
The weather forecast for Iceland on 30-December-2015 is looking really bad. The worst weather is going to be in eastern Iceland and possibly in western Iceland. It is not known where the worst wind is going to be exactly, but it is going to be real bad weather in eastern Iceland. UK Met Office has named this storm Frank, news about it can be found here (BBC Weather). The main risk is strong wind and rain.
This storm is also going to create a major problems in Faroe Islands and in the general area around Iceland.
The storm system low in hPa. Images are from this blog here (in Icelandic).
The storm system. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
The storm system.Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
I’m going to update this article as needed if everything goes bad when the storm arrives in Iceland on 30-December-2015.
Update 1
There was a storm in east Iceland yesterday. Creating a flood and snow-mud slides. One of those mud slides took out one SIL station.
The SIL station at Aðalból is now off-line due to mud-flood in that area. The image above shows when the mud-slide hits the SIL station and damages or destroys it. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
Image of the mud-slide can be found here. Washington Post has news article about this storm and it can be read here.
New wind forecast for Iceland on 30-December-2015. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
Flight delays should be expect according to FlightRadar24.
Update 2
Eastern part of Iceland got hit bad in this weather. North Iceland (eastern and western) are next going to be hit with this weather, it is not going to be as bad as in eastern Iceland. Mudslides also fell, damaging roads and creating other issues. Flooding was also a major problem in eastern Iceland. Some road damage has happened, but I don’t know the extent of at the moment. The lowest air pressure measured was 930 hPa according to Iceland Met Office.
News with images and videos of the storm in eastern Iceland (in Icelandic)
Aurskriður féllu í Fljótsdal (Rúv.is)
Malbikið flettist af veginum í Eskifirði (Rúv.is, images)
Ótrúlegar myndir frá Eskifirði (Rúv.is, videos)
Svipmyndir frá Eskifirði morguninn eftir storminn (Vísir.is, images)
Sjóhús svo gott sem farið: „Aldrei kynnst öðru eins“ (Vísir.is, images, video)
I don’t know when the weather is going to be fully over, but the worst appears to be over currently. I’m going to update this article as more information comes in.
Other
I’ve opened up the possibility for people to register again. If it stays spam-bot free it is going to be a permanent feature. This didn’t work out due to manual spam registration. If anyone wants to use the registered user function please contact me over email so I can manually register a user name (password is going to be a random). There isn’t anything I can do about spam registration on my website, since they are done by people that get paid $1 for every registration that is made. All spam users are going to be deleted once they get active.
Article updated at 17:55 UTC.
Article updated at 16:03 UTC on 30-December-2015.
Weather warning for Iceland Monday-07 and 08-Tuesday December-2015
Weather warning for Iceland on 07 and 08 December-2015.
If you are a tourist and if you know a tourist in Iceland at the moment. Please follow the following advice given by the Iceland Met Office.
After 15:00 UTC it is advised against all travel tomorrow, even in emergency. If you have an emergency during the storm contact 112 for advice and help. Problems with power and communication problems can and should be expected tomorrow during the duration of the storm.
I’m expecting both of my geophone to stop working at some time during this storm, due to power loss, loss of 3G signal or WiMax signal (Heklubyggð) or some other issues that might appear during this storm. Nothing can be done about this and I just hope for the best during this weather.
Wind forecast for tomorrow at 22:00 UTC. This is highly dangerous weather.
Please read the following news in English about the coming weather in Iceland on Monday.
Hurricane-force winds tomorrow (Rúv.is)
Violent storm with total white out to hit Iceland on Monday (mbl.is)
Hurricane force winds predicted for tomorrow (mbl.is)
Please check Iceland Met Office website and Facebook page for more details about this weather.
Update 1
English
The National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police in association with the District Commissioners in Iceland declares an uncertainty phase due to weather forecast from the meteorological office of a violent storm with hurrican force winds in all areas of Iceland
Travel advisory for all areas is in effect. Travellers are advised to avoid travelling in the South of Iceland from 1200 and in other areas from 1700. Uncertainty phase/level is characterized by an event which has already started and could lead to a threat to people, communities or the environment. At this stage the collaboration and coordination between the Civil Protection Authorities and stakeholders begins. Monitoring, assessment, research and evaluation of the situation is increased. The event is defined and a hazard assessment is conducted regularly..
(Almannavarnir Facebook page)
Update 2
Two of Vegagerðin wind stations that monitor wind did go down.
This is under Eyjafjöllum. Copyright of this image belongs to Vegagerðin in Iceland.
South of Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Vegagerðin in Iceland.
Article updated at 17:48 UTC.
Article updated at 11:18 UTC on 07-December-2015
Article updated at 06:17 UTC on 08-December-2015
Bárðarbunga volcano update for 16-December-2014
This is a short update on Bárðarbunga volcano. Due to weather I won’t be able to do full regular updates on Bárðarbunga volcano today. Since bad weather prevented me from getting the computer table that I need to use.
Yesterday (Monday 15-December-2014) an magnitude 5,4 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Earthquake activity dropped in Bárðarbunga volcano following this earthquake. It has however been picking up again in the last few hours.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and Tungafellsjökull volcano for the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano remains around the same. There have been fewer earthquakes detected due to bad weather happening in Iceland, since wind and ocean noise lower the detection threshold of earthquakes, making it difficult to impossible to record smaller earthquakes. Observations of Holuhraun are impossible at the moment due to bad weather. I haven’t been able to check the web-cameras since my laptop can’t handle it.
Tungafellsjökull volcano earthquake activity has been increasing for the past 48 hours. Largest earthquake in this latest earthquake swarm activity had the magnitude of 3,2. There are no signs of any other unrest in Tungafellsjökull at this moment.
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Bárðarbunga volcano update Wednesday 12-November-2014
Eruption activity continued in Holuhraun at the same rate as on Monday (10-November-2014) and yesterday (Tuesday 11-November-2014). While bad weather has making observation of the eruption in Holuhraun difficult and close to impossible there are no signs of the eruption ending any time soon. A lava lake has now formed that is around 400 meters long and 100 meters wide. This is the first lava lake in Iceland in a long time. I don’t know when last lava lake existed in Iceland, but that was a while ago.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano continues as it has been doing for the past two and half months. This means that the caldera continues to subside at unchanged rate. I do not know how much the area has grown that is now subsiding, I think there is limited information on that due to limited access to this area in the winter time. At the moment nothing seems to be changing and GPS data is supporting that view of mine. Comments on this blog and blogs posts by people how have gone to the eruption site in recent days say that new fractures are appearing south of current eruption crater. This means that rifting is continuing, this also means that new eruption south of current crater might start at any time without warning. Since magma is at shallow depth at this location, with depth being only 1 – 2 km at most, it is possible that it might even be at shallower depth closest to the eruption crater (but has not erupted yet).
Tungafellsjökull volcano
There has been minor increase in earthquake activity in Tungafellsjökull volcano. At the moment this looks just like a tectonic stresses are adjusting to all the changes in Bárðarbunga volcano. Earthquake activity in Tungafellsjökull volcano might increase in next few days or weeks. I don’t expect any eruption to take place at this point in time.
Bad weather warning
For the next two days there is going to be bad weather in Iceland. This means that detection of earthquakes is going to be limited in Holuhraun and around Bárðarbunga volcano. This means that only largest of earthquakes are going to be properly detected. Visibility to the eruption site on web-cameras is not going to be awful to none due to the snowstorm that I expect might follow this storm in the highland (it might rain, but I am not sure on that detail yet). It is storm season in Iceland so expect a lot of storms all winter.
Bárðarbunga volcano update for Wednesday 05-November-2014
This is current status in Bárðarbunga volcano for Wednesday 05-November-2014.
There has not been any major change in the eruption in Holuhraun since Monday 03-November-2014. The eruption continues around the same phase as before. Earthquake activity continues to be strong as it has been for the past two months. With several magnitude 3 – 4,9 earthquakes happening every day, the amount of earthquakes is different between days.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the past 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
It continues to be extremely dangerous going to the eruption site as two police men found out yesterday. They hit a pocket of dangerous gases that had removed most of the oxygen in the area where they had located them self, at the edge of the lava field and where some two to three kilometres away from main erupting crater. They almost passed out due to lack of oxygen and they where using gas masks according to the news on Rúv about this insistent.
Drop of the caldera in Bárðarbunga volcano continues at the same rate as before, the most drop is now around 44 meters in the caldera. Cauldrons in the glacier above Bárðarbunga volcano continue to getting deeper, the depth has increased around 5 – 8 meters in the past 11 days according to recent measurements. The amount of melt according to calculations is around 2 cubic meters per second (m³/sec). This is equal to energy release for few hundreds megawatts according to University of Iceland. It is now difficult getting to the eruption site due to winter in the area, travel by car is now at minimum seven hours the other way in best conditions.
Other than this I don’t think there is anything else new about Bárðarbunga volcano eruption at the moment.
Icelandic News
Færð gerir vísindamönnum erfitt fyrir (Rúv.is)
Lögreglumenn urðu fyrir súrefnisskorti (Rúv.is)
Bárðarbunga volcano update for Friday 31-October-2014
This is the update for Bárðarbunga volcano on Friday 31-October-2014.
Not much has changed since Wednesday (29-October-2014) update in Bárðarbunga volcano. Earthquake activity continues as it has been doing for the past two months. No major change has been taking place in according to GPS data. No major change has happened in eruption vents in Holuhraun, the lava field is now around 65 square kilometres in size.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the past 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Strongest earthquakes for the past 24 hours have the magnitude of 5,3 and 5,2. Other earthquakes have been smaller. There is no change in earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and the caldera continues to drop around 40cm/day at the moment. Current SO2 output levels are around 20,000 to 40,000 tons/daily of SO2 from the eruption in Holuhraun. Bad weather has blocked proper earthquake detection and monitoring of the eruption in Holuhraun and of Bárðarbunga volcano. The weather is going to be extremely bad in Iceland for the next 6 – 10 hours. Other than this I don’t have any more news of Bárðarbunga volcano eruption.
Article updated 01-November-2014 at 00:30 UTC.
Bárðarbunga volcano update for 15-October-2014
Far as I know there has not been a big change in the activity in Bárðarbunga volcano today (15-October-2014). Largest earthquake today had the magnitude of 5,4 and was felt in Akureyri. When the magnitude 5,4 earthquake happened the caldera dropped 15 cm in one go according to the GPS measurements in its centre. Over the past two days earthquake activity has been increasing in Bárðarbunga volcano and along the dyke that is erupting in Holuhraun. After the largest earthquake today the earthquake activity appears to have dropped a little.
The earthquake activity today in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Other then this I don’t think there is anything more in news of activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Since day to day activity remains the same. Tungafellsjökull volcano continues to show earthquake activity following the stress changes that are now taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano. I still think no eruption is going to take place in that volcano [Tungafellsjökull volcano], at least as things stand at the moment.
Those how are interested in hearing the magnitude 5,4 earthquake that happened today. It is possible to do so in this two audio files that I did convert from my earthquake data earlier. This is how my geophones at Böðvarshólar (bhrz) and Heklubyggð (hkbz) “hear” the earthquake. Each audio file is only 2 seconds long. The sound from Heklubyggð is louder since the earthquake signal is stronger there. Both audio files are released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see CC Licence page for more details.
Böðvarshólar geophone
141015.111600.bhrzZ
Heklubyggð geophone
141015.111607.hkbzZ