It is 16 days to Christmas and the sun just crawls above the horizon these days. Winter solstice is on December 22. It is the day in the year that is the shortest with the longest night. Today sunrise was at 11:05 and sunset at 15:35. It was light for 4 hours and 29 minutes.
The Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration monitors driving conditions all over Iceland. In the winter time their web is our number ONE. There you can see maps of roads with info on the temperature, driving conditions and how many have been going that way in the last 10 minutes. There are also webcams on many of the most travelled roads. Special warnings are issued when very bad weather is on its way.
Their website is www.road.is
From their site:
The best way to get information about road conditions and the weather on the road system is to call 1777 (if problems use +354 522 1100, +354 522 1100). Open 8-16 in summer and 6:30-22 in winter. An English answering machine with similar road information is in phone number 1778.
It has been getting colder in the last few days. The frost was around -7° C today and the forecast predicts up to -10°C tonight in the South and even colder in the North and the East. Cold air is on its way from Northeast Greenland and forecasts predict that the cold will reach West Europe tomorrow. A little ice has started to form on the river.
The sun now rises at about ten o’clock in the morning and sets at about half past four. We see the days become shorter and twilight takes up a bigger part if the day time. Sometimes the sun is a great nuisance, – it is low on the horizon and gets in ones eyes e.g. when driving.
Low on the horizon the sun lights up the clouds lending them brighter colours .
Aurora Borealis light up the estuary where Ölfusá River flows into the Northern Atlantic. In the dead calm just before midnight the sea was like a mirror creating a magnificent sensation. Seldom have I seen the sea as calm as last night.
We had a full Moon tonight and the sky was clear so you could not have missed it if you were looking. We watched as it crawled up into the sky, changing colours from almost orange to yellow and then to white as dusk was falling. –Such a wonderful sight.
The Moon is full when it is completely illuminated as seen from the Earth. This occurs when the Moon is opposite to the Sun. The lunar month is 29-30 days so we have a full Moon about 12 times a year.
Beautiful colours lend a magical light to the early morning just before sunrise.
Again tonight the Northern Lights continued to light up the sky. I never tire of photographing them and hope that you too, enjoy seeing them here.
Several webpages give forecasts of expected Aurora activity. This is from the Icelandic Met Office:
http://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/
Veiðivötn, Fishing Lakes, are a cluster lakes in the Southern Interior. The lakes are renowned for trout fishing. The area is worth visiting for its magnificent scenery and birdlife. Click to see the slideshow.
