Meteorological office reports high temperatures across country and record measured at Seyðisfjörður in east
Record temperatures of almost 20C were reached in Iceland on Christmas Eve, the local meteorological office has confirmed.
Seyðisfjörður, a small town in the east of Iceland, hit 19.8C on 24 December. Average December temperatures in Iceland are between -1C and 4C.
It was a hot day in general: a temperature of 19.7C was measured at Bakkagerði in eastern Borgarfjörður, in the far east of the country. The previous record was set on 2 December 2019, when the temperature was measured at 19.7C in Kvískerjar in Öræfi, in the south-east of Iceland.
Birgir Örn Höskuldsson, a meteorologist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, told the RÚV news agency the conditions for the temperature record had been created because warm air of a tropical origin was over the country. A strong high pressure system was drawing warm, moist air to the south and preventing colder air from moving in.
