Iceland recorded a historic temperature peak on Wednesday, exceeding 19 degrees Celsius, the highest December reading since records began, local media reported on Friday.
It was a year‑end that Icelanders will remember for a long time. On 24 December, traditionally associated with snow, cold and ice, Iceland registered a temperature of 19.8°C in the town of Seyðisfjörður, according to the country’s media.
This was a new historical record, significantly higher than the previous warmest December temperature of 19.7°C, which had stood since early December 2019.
Meteorologists attributed the extreme warmth primarily to a flow of warm air from subtropical regions combined with local atmospheric conditions, which can rapidly raise temperatures in eastern Iceland when winds descend from higher terrain.
While such weather phenomena can be explained by specific meteorological factors, the broader context of climate change and rapid warming in the Arctic has made such records increasingly common in recent years.
