Dust and ash storms even more visible

Satellite image since 14:15 today shows the dust and ash storms well.

Dust storms in cold dry weather and strong winds

Yesterday, today, and probably for the next couple of days, we expect dust storms off the sandur and ash fallout areas in the south of Iceland. There is no rain in forecasts in the south till Friday, and tomorrow the forecast is for a strong northerly wind still (13 m/s), then more SE at 7 m/s on Wednesday, which might be enough.

At noon today the weather map looked like this (en.vedur.is)

At 12 on Monday, 14 May 2012.

Satellite image from 12:20 today shows a dust storm just east of Mýrdalsjökull.

Yesterday, around 15:10 there was also a dust/ash storm visible.

Small dust storms east of Mýrdalsjökull

Small dust storms are visible east of Mýrdalsjökull, just east of Múlakvísl and Blautakvísl.

At 12 and 13 the weather there was sunny and dry, but a little windy, as can be seen from these maps from the IMO.

12:0

13:00.

No increase in particulate matter at Kirkjubæjarklaustur and Raufarfell; small and very local sources of these dust storms.

Wildfire in Borgarfirði; 20120421

Farmers used the still weather to burn dead grass and such in Borgarfjord. This is a behavior which the fire chief in Borgarbyggð is not happy about (see interview).

Satellite image from 14:10, Saturday 21 April 2012. (MODIS image from NASA Rapidfire).

The fire was clearly seen, as seen above, by satellites.

The location of the fires according to satellite data is shown on the Google map above. The label for each of the 3 points shows the time stamp and Fire Radiative Power (FRP) in MW.

Einar Svenbjörnsson hefur skemmtilega lýsingu á reykmekkinum á bloggsíðu sinni.

No ice on Öskjuvatni

No ice cover on lake Öskjuvatni is causing some interest. This is clearly seen on satellite images from NASA on 2 April 2012.

Öskjuvatn is the dark spot just to the north-east of the center of the country. Image from 2 April 2012 (NASA Rapidfire).

There aren’t that many possible explanations. It seems unlikely that weather plays a crucial role, other lakes are ice covered that should experience similar conditions. That leaves increased geothermal activity as the most likely explanation. The lake is 220 m deep, so increase in geothermal activity takes a while to show on the surface.