Dust blowing in SE-Iceland

Dry weather and strong winds are causing sediment from glacier rivers to blow in the SE of Iceland 19 and 20 November 2015. There was a recent jökulhlaup from Skaftárkatlar (material blown in the center of the images below).

Wind speed at Skarðsfjöruviti shows that the wind speed, gusts, exceeded 10 m/s around noon on the 19 November.

Below are MODIS and Landsat images from around 13:50 on 19 November.

MODIS image from 13:50 on 19 November 2015 (Image courtesy of NASA/Rapidfire).

Landsat 8 image 19 November 2015 (Landsat 8 image from NASA and USGS). 

Reykjavík has also been dry and windy, and the PM10 concentration relatively high; up to 200 µg/m3 30-min averages on 18 November 2015.

Dust storm north of Vatnajökull 17 October 2015

Large dust storm from just north of Dyngjujökull, outlet glacier of Vatnajökull, Iceland.

Good weather conditions (for dust storm), windy, dry and sunny. Gusts over 20 m/s, and 10 min wind around 15 m/s.

Data from Upptyppingar, IMO weather station.

Satellite image taken at 12:55 on 17 October 2015.

Dust storm(s) 26 and 28 April 2015

Sunny and dry in the south these days, and a bit windy at times. Prime conditions for dust storms.

On 26 April 2015 there were several source areas.

On 28 April 2015 there were several source areas visible also, from Ölfus to Jökulsárlón.

Note that it looks like there are two wind direction governing the dust east of Mýrdalsjökull; small stroke due south, and other ones to the south-west.

This figure shows the meteorological observations in the area at 17:00 on the 28 May 2015. Looks like different wind direction at nearby location is not unlikely.

Holuhraun

Holuhraun eruption still going, since 31 August 2014. The lava is now 1.3 km3, and covers over 80 km2. There is a lot of SO2 gas coming with the eruption, leading to pollution events where the concentration is well above the health limits.

 
Image from 31 January 2015, at 12:20 (Modis image from NASA/Rapidfire).

Seasonality of wildfires in Iceland

In the next volume of Náttúrufræðingsins, 84(1-2): 19-26, there is an article about the seasonality of wildfires in Iceland.

Summary. Data on wildfires was collected from news databases, and for the period 2003–2010 we had data from the Iceland Construction Authority, which contains the activity of all fire departments in Iceland. Most of the fires are small; however, there were ten wildfires larger than 1 hectare in the period 2007–2013, including six larger than 10
hectares. Most of the fires are due to ignition, deliberate or accidental. There is a clear seasonal signal in the occurrence of wildfires in Iceland using data from 1943–2012. Most often they occur in spring, with 29% of each year wildfires occurring in May, followed by 28% in April and 13% in March. There is also a clear New Year’s Eve signal in January (6% of the wildfires). The data is not detailed enough to allow estimation of changes in frequency or occurrence between months, since prior to 2002/3 there was no centralized registration of wildfires. However, one can infer that wildfire during the summer months is a relatively recent development. This fits well with increased biomass
due to global warming, denser summerhouse populations, and less grazing. This also exemplifies the need for action in developing risk assessments and including wildfires in
planning.

The distribution of wildfires each month for the period 1943–2000 (blue columns; 161 events) and 2001–2012 (red columns; 947 events), and standard deviation.