Officials raise red flag as disturbing phenomenon unfolds in Iceland: 'There is no reason to question these …'

It was shorts weather for Santa as parts of Iceland set record high temperatures this past Christmas Eve. Air that originated in the tropics swept across the country, helping temperatures in places surge to nearly 70 degrees on December 24.

Seyðisfjörður, on the east coast of Iceland, reached a record high of 19.8 degrees Celsius (about 67.6 degrees Fahrenheit) the day before Christmas, reported The Guardian. It broke the previous record for Iceland, set on December 2, 2019, when the high reached 19.7 Celsius (about 67.5 Fahrenheit) in Öræfi, about 125 miles to the southwest of Seyðisfjörður, as the crow flies.

"This is incredibly warm for winter," meteorologist Einar Sveinbjörnsson posted on Facebook, per RÚV, Iceland's national public broadcasting service. "Another station in Seyðisfjörður, located north of the head of the fjord in Vestdalur, recorded 19.4 C [about 66.9 F]. There is no reason to question these measurements."

A "foehn wind" contributed to the unusual holiday heat records in Iceland, RÚV detailed. "Foehn winds represent a special type of local wind associated with mountain systems," explains the National Weather Service in an online publication. "In most mountainous areas, local winds are observed that blow over the mountain ranges and descend the slopes on the leeward side. If the down-flowing wind is warm and dry, it is called a foehn wind."  

While a foehn wind played a part in setting a new record high for December 24 in Iceland, a warming climate at high northern latitudes is making it easier to break records.

Records fell in Iceland this past spring too, as temperatures in some areas climbed by as much as 3 to 4 degrees Celsius (roughly 5 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than normal in May, according to The Guardian. The temperature peaked at 26.6 Celsius (about 79.9 Fahrenheit) at Egilsstaðir Airport in East Iceland on May 15.

Individual temperature records aren't alone proof of historical trends, but scientific consensus holds that human activities have raised average temperatures worldwide — and continue to do so. The effects of this warming include amplified extreme weather events that can endanger lives and livelihoods.

Only part of Iceland is north of the Arctic Circle, but our overheating planet is also having a huge impact on the Arctic, with effects spilling out into other parts of the world. Scientists say the region is warming rapidly compared to the rest of the planet. 

"In recent decades, the warming in the Arctic has been much faster than in the rest of the world, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification," concluded a 2022 study on the warming observed in the Arctic since 1979. 

"Numerous studies report that the Arctic is warming either twice, more than twice, or even three times as fast as the globe on average," added the authors of that research. "[We] show, by using several observational datasets which cover the Arctic region, that during the last 43 years the Arctic has been warming nearly four times faster than the globe, which is a higher ratio than generally reported in literature." 

According to the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Information's November global climate report, the Arctic had its fifth-warmest November on record, with temperatures more than 6 degrees Fahrenheit above average. At just over 5 degrees Fahrenheit above average, the period from January through November was the second-warmest such period on record for the region. 

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NOAA's 2025 Arctic report card highlighted several ways our warming world is impacting the region, including "permafrost thaw influencing river chemistry, northward ocean heat transport reshaping Arctic marine ecosystems, and widespread warming leading to borealization of Arctic waters and landscapes."

"Transformations over the next twenty years will reshape Arctic environments and ecosystems, impact the wellbeing of Arctic residents, and influence the trajectory of the global climate system itself, which we all depend on," warned the authors of the report card.

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