If you don’t like the weather in Iceland, just wait 15 minutes
The picture I posted of a car full of snow in Iceland yesterday has been spreading around 9gag as well. As good and plausible as the story was, It turned out to be old. This picture of the door is authentic though (as authentic as viral media gets anyways) I had a look in 9gag again and there I found this picture of a doorway entirely blocked by snow. This is what happens when the wind starts blowing, it takes redistributes it like crazy, clearly packing it up against the door in this case.
There’s a saying in Iceland “If you don’t like the weather in Iceland, just wait fifteen minutes.” This often holds true, because since we are a small mountaineous island in the North Atlantic, nothing is stable. Even though we’ve had all this crazy snow in the past few days and an unusually snowy winter overall, the forecast is for up to 11°C and rain this weekend. This will cause lots of problems as all that snow melting this fast will clog up drains, filling the streets with snowmelt. Everybody will have to be careful to clear away their drains to prevent their cellars from flooding.
Here’s another pic from Reykjavík yesterday, found on 9gag.
![Iceland winter conditions
[Update] Check out the TV’s report on the weather. Just click play. You may not understand the language, but you can see what the weather is like in Reykjavík and on the road to the airport. Not every day that you see snowcats driving around downtown.
As I posted before, Iceland has had a serious winter this year. Somehow it just keeps getting worse and worse or better and better. Depends on your point of view. A significant part of Icelanders are completely snowed in today. In Reykjavík, only the largest streets have been cleared forcing many to either stay at home or walk or ski to work. Even many schools have been encouraging parents to keep their children home for the day. This I can tell you is very unusual, it’s not like in much of the US where schools simply close on snow days. Icelandic kids usually just march on to school, no matter the weather.
The map above shows the state of the roads at the moment, according to the Icelandic Road Authority. As you see, there are no clear roads in the country.
Green = Clear
Yellow = Patches of ice
Light Blue = Icy
Dark Blue = Crazy slippery
White = Snow
Pink = More snow
Black = Very much snow
Red = Impassable
Truck = We’re working on it
Crossing arrows = snow blowing in the wind
It is normal, that all of the roads in the middle of the country (the Highlands) are red. They are usually impassable from sometime early in the fall and until mid June. However, most of the rest should be open and either clear or icy on a normal day winter day.
Some major roads, such as the road between Reykjavík and the Keflavík Airport were closed today. As you can see on the pic to the right, it is open now, but the Police is discouraging people from using it. This has caused some flight delays in the past 24 hours.
In Vestfirðir, the north western part of Iceland, you see virtually all the roads are closed (red). That is actually the smallest of their problems, because they are worried about avalanches. Many of the roads are closed due to avalanche risk and some of the towns are on alert for evacuation of some neighborhoods. In 1995, dozens of people died in a series of avalanches that hit towns in that area. This is Iceland’s greatest natural disaster in the past couple of centuries.
Plenty of people have been making good use of the snow though. The skiing area in Bláfjöll just outside Reykjavík, has been bustling with activity and great conditions in the past few days. Many have also been enjoying mountain ski trips around Reykjavík. Here are some great pictures from a few friends of mine skiing on Móskarðshnjúkar, a mountain right on the city limits.
Would be great to hear from tourists enjoying Iceland right now. As long as your plans are not too rigid, there’s plenty of fun possible.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyeosuQfQW1qdghoso1_1280.gif)
Some major roads, such as the road between Reykjavík and the Keflavík Airport were closed today. As you can see on the pic to the right, it is open now, but the Police is discouraging people from using it. This has caused some flight delays in the past 24 hours.
There has been some serious weather in Iceland in the past few days, very strong winds, lots of snow and ice. As posted before, there 
We’ve had a particularly white Christmas in Iceland this year. Reykjavík had the greatest snow depth ever measured in December (33cm) and although most of it came down on December 29th, the city was white almost the whole month. Although some find it tedious to dig their cars out in the morning, I and many others enjoyed it a lot. It created a rather cheerful spirit of helpfulness around the city. People went out of their way to help others push, pull and dig out stuck cars. It gave lots of chances to get to know neighbors and random people.
