Iceland’s glaciers to grow in 2015
Vatnajökull. Photo: Malín Brand
High winter rainfall and cold summer temperatures are likely to result in glacier growth in Iceland for the first time in twenty years.
Icelandic glaciers have been shrinking year after year since 1995, but the trend may be bucked this year, according to Finnur Pálsson, glaciology expert at the University of Iceland’s Institute of Earth Sciences.
Giving the example of Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest glacier in volume, Pálsson says, “[Winter was followed by] a very cold summer with little sun. There has been limited melting and little summer thaw.” The result of this is that Iceland’s glaciers are actually set to grow in size in 2015, for the first time in twenty years.
“A localised blip”
This is likely to be just a blip, however, warns Helgi Björnsson, glaciologist at the University’s Science Institute.
“The weather in Iceland this summer is an exceptional case in the global context,” he explains. “In polar areas, the Alps and the Himalayas, glaciers are continuing to shrink as they have done previously. There are suggestions that globally this year will be even hotter that last year.”
“The summer weather in Iceland this year can be considered a localised ‘blip’ within continuous global warming,” Björnsson concludes.
