Commentary, nature, Photography

Northern Icelandic Weather, Part II

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While visiting Iceland earlier this month, we were caught in some bad weather just as we were slated to travel back to the south. You can read my last post about that here: https://lynettedartycross.com/2024/06/09/northern-icelandic-weather-part-i/

As I mentioned in that post, we were in for a bit of a surprise. We left Húsavík and while on our way to Akureyri thought that the weather was improving.

We had a booking for whale watching the next day, but during the night, the predicted storm started giving us quite a shellacking.

Awakened by the wind at about 3:00 a.m., M looked outside to check on the weather (that far north it was still light out) and saw that the snow was blowing parallel to the ground with gusts of about 80 km (50 miles). Our whale watching was a definite cancel, but we were worried about getting back to Reykjavik for the day after, and anxiously kept track of road conditions for the following 24 hours.

But none of what we were seeing on the Icelandic highway app was reassuring: gusts to 90 km (56 miles), ice pellets, snow, freezing rain, temperatures around +1-2C (33-35 F), completely perfect conditions for dangerously ice covered roads with obscured visibility.

We awoke bright and early the next morning to find that the main route – highway one – to the south was closed in at least two places.

We went to breakfast to drink coffee and to think this one through. There were things on our side. We’re very experienced in winter driving conditions and have literally seen it all, including driving through the Rocky Mountains during a December ice storm. We had rented a four-wheel drive manual which gave us some snow clearance and traction, and lastly, we had the time to drive very slowly.

We decided to take the chance: the road closure was 1.5 hours away, and we thought that clearing and sanding might have occurred by the time we got there, given that this is the main highway. We pulled out of Akureyri with a stockpile of trepidation and all the supplies we would need to wait out the storm in our vehicle if necessary.

At first, it wasn’t too bad, but then we had this:

The snow ruts were ice encrusted and caused pulling to the left or right if we had to move out of them. This is actually a two-lane highway, but with all the snow buildup, you wouldn’t know it.

When we arrived at the first closed section, snow clearing had already occurred and the road was open once more, but then we also started descending from the highlands, and within 30 minutes had much better conditions.

We were delighted to get out of that weather, and the further south we went, the better the weather became.

When we stopped to stretch our legs and pry our tense fingers off the steering wheel, we were even rewarded with a foss, or waterfall.

All’s well that ends well. Happy Friday.

28 thoughts on “Northern Icelandic Weather, Part II”

    1. We spent six winters in the Northwest Territories and know how to prepare for and deal with poor driving conditions, but it was still unnerving. We weren’t used to those gargantuan wind gusts; very nasty. Yes, we were so happy to get on the other side!

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  4. Driving in Iceland can be a challenge in any month. We never saw snow at the summer solstice when we were there, but we stayed near Reykjavik. Glad it worked out for you. Too bad about the whale watching tour. Thanks for sharing Lynette. Allan

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    1. It sure can, Allan. The locals in Akureyri and Húsavik were talking about how unusually cold the weather was, and given that I’ve been in Inuvik in June (68° N latitude) when the weather has really been great, I could understand why they were surprised. Húsavik is slightly more southerly at 66° N latitude but the Greenland Sea was really bringing in that storm and nothing to mitigate it, especially that wind.
      We were very sorry to have missed the whale watching but glad we made it through the storm!

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    1. It was definitely tense but we decided to rely on our experience as drivers in the subarctic and prepared accordingly. Had we not had that experience under our belts I really don’t think we would have attempted it, especially in those wind gusts that were buffeting the vehicle! We were sure glad to get through it.

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  6. I was gripping my phone as I read the story, knowing exactly how stressful that kind of driving can be. Not what you want anywhere, but definitely not in a foreign country. Did the car have winter tires? Maggie

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    1. That’s very true, Maggie. The fact that we were in a foreign country wasn’t adding to our comfort level, that’s for sure! We were fully insured, but still, it felt very unnerving. Yes, this vehicle had winter tires and was actually very suitable for the conditions, so we were glad we had organised our rental that way. We originally had an idea of doing some back roads driving, but we took that off the table when we saw how generally unstable the weather was during our visit.

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  7. Sounds about right in terms of the weather in Iceland! It’s too bad that your whale watching tour was cancelled. Husavik is supposed to be the best spot in Iceland for whale-sighting. Good thing you rented a car with four-wheel drive.

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    1. The locals in Húsavik and Akureyri were surprised at how cold the weather was and kept commenting about it, but I agree, weather in the north, particularly in the Arctic and subarctic, can be unpredictable at any time.
      Yes, we were very disappointed at missing the whale watching. Our understanding is that the Húsavik and Akureyri areas are some of the best in the world for it, but I guess no trip is ever prefect. Agreed, Linda, our rental was quite a good one for conditions; we were glad we had it.

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    1. Agreed, Anneli. There’s a small town near where the closure was, and we planned to pull over and wait it out there, if necessary. We even did a tentative hotel booking. If we hadn’t needed to get back for our flight home, we would have waited another day, but we had to give it a try and happily it worked out.

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  9. Oh boy. I can just see my husband and I arguing–him wanting to chance it and me wanting to wait.

    How long were you driving in that heavy stuff? So glad you made it safe. And the weather and scenery looked so lovely where you ended up.

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    1. Fortunately we’re both pretty seasoned winter drivers, so we were on the same page; mostly we just had to count up the pros and cons and confirm it with each other. We both found it quite unnerving, though, Lori.

      We were in that icy, mushy snow – with ice pellets and freezing rain falling – for about an hour, travelling at about 40 kph (25 mph). The temperature was what worried me the most though as it was sitting right in that freezing zone at 1C (34F). The front of our vehicle was covered in a layer of ice. But once we got down to a lower elevation and out of the cloud, the weather was so much better! We saw those abrupt weather changes frequently while we were in Iceland.

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  10. OMG, nobody wants to drive in those conditions, but glad you arrived safe and sound. The weather was really up and down in the past 2 months, with extreme temperatures.

    Happy Friday!

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    1. Thank you very much, Christie. 😊 It sure wasn’t pretty, but weather in Iceland can be unpredictable, even in June. The weather here in the Okanagan Valley has been its usual self, fortunately. A good thing after the drought and heat waves from last summer.

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    1. Yes, definitely challenging, Belinda. I was more than a little unsettled, that’s for sure! If we hadn’t had so much winter driving experience – or also a good vehicle for those conditions – we would not have tried it.

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  12. Thank you for this post – I’m not sure I would have thought to rent such an appropriate vehicle had I been there! While I have a lot of ice and snow driving experience, having the right wheels under you makes a huge difference. If/when I get to Iceland, I will remember this!

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    1. You’re very welcome. I agree completely; the right vehicle for the job! Our “northern” vehicle at home is a heavy truck, completely outfitted with, among other things, tow ropes, jumper cables, a standalone plug-in and everything else we might have needed if we got stranded in bad weather. It has been excellent and exactly what we needed for the north, but since we’re now retired in the south, the time is coming for us to give it up, too.

      When we rented the vehicle in Iceland, we thought we might drive some of the secondary dirt roads, so we hired something appropriate, but with the weather becoming so unreliable, we were glad we stayed on the main roads and our choice of vehicle turned to be exactly what we needed anyway.

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