Another sunny day in Iceland

I’m headed to Keflavik Airport shortly to fly back to the US. Stay tuned, though, as I still have some stories to wrap up over the next few days (and subscribe to my blog to catch the next trip!).

But first, some interesting observations on weather, etc.

Daylight. Since I arrived in Iceland a week ago, I’ve lost 49 minutes of daily daylight. The sun rises 28 minutes later today than it did this time last Saturday, and sets 21 minutes earlier. What a furious march to December 21 when the day, of course, will start to get longer again.

Weather. It snowed in Reykjavik the day before I arrived. I’ve seen no falling snow and at least some sun and blue sky every day that I’ve been here. And the forecast for Sunday is snow. The forecast for late next week is warmer temps and rain for four days straight.  I lucked out. I may have complained a lot about how cold it was (I should have had warmer gloves), but I was very lucky with the weather.

Northern Lights. Less lucky. Saw them once, from my hotel room in Reykjavik of all places. My room was on the fifth floor with only skylights. At about midnight I woke up and the sky was filled with green lights. I jumped up, threw some clothes on, grabbed my camera, ran downstairs and out into the street. Looked up. Nothing. Looked around, everyone was going about their own business (yeah, they don’t come out until after 10 am, but they’re still there at midnight). Back up in my room I could still see them. I guess because my room was above the street lights and had no ambient light, I could see the sky better. Down on the street the city lights obscured the Northern Lights. After that, I thought I’d see the lights every night, but never again.