The shift from summer to winter has been pretty dramatic here, we have had a bit of a storm in Iceland...it seemed to affect the whole country somewhat but mainly the areas in the north, some places have had 15-20cm of snow which is a new record for this time of year. The wind was violent and caused a power blackout in the north, apparently the worst damage to power lines in 17 years.
We here in Sauðárkrókur were with out power for about 4 hours but some areas have gone without for a couple of days.
The wind was so strong that in one place (Skaftafell) it blew the asphalt from the road...I had never even imagined such a thing could happen but Icelanders just nod knowingly...they have heard it all before!
This is the time of the year when the Réttir is on (sheep roundup), it usually runs over a couple weekends, the storm happened between the two, so things were not looking good for the sheep that were not brought down from the mountain during the first weekend. It was thought that up to 13,000 sheep were yet to be brought down. Volunteer rescue teams have been out trying to find and recover as many sheep as possible some buried in several metres of snow.
Fortunately most seemed to have survived the ordeal and have been successfully rescued.
The weather is once again calm and yesterday there was some blue skies with snow on the mountains surrounding the town.
I love my morning walks on days like this...the air is still but crisp and cool.
I hope this is not a portend of things to come while we're over there. Keep warm! X
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