Unusual Warmth Reaches Iceland & Greenland At Expense Of Record Cold Spreading Back Through Europe

Written by on March 20, 2021 in Rest of Europe, United Kingdom & Ireland with 0 Comments

A strong ‘atmospheric boulder’ of high pressure positioned from Azores to Arctic created an atmospheric traffic jam over recent days and presented an unusual temperature profile. This highly amplified, omega block located west of Scotland forced subtropical air into the arctic circle and arctic air south back across Europe.

Here was the 500mb setup back on Thursday.

Credit: Tropical Tidbits

Credit: Tropical Tidbits

Check out the 2m temp anomalies with 5-10C above normal for Scotland and as much as 10-15C above normal reaching Greenland and Iceland. From Greece westwards to Spain it was 10-15C below normal.

Credit: Tropical Tidbits

Credit: Tropical Tidbits

The warmth which swept northwards through Iceland reached ‘late spring or early summer’ levels.The tiny east coast community of Dalatangi topped 20.4C, surpassing their previous March record of 17.5C set back in 1956 and came within 0.1C of the national record of 20.5C set in 2012.

For perspective, the average high in Dalatangi in March is just 3C. Average high in July and August? 11.0 and 11.3C respectively!

Greenland’s east coast managed to warm to an unusual March high of 14C.

As for mainland Europe, it was record cold with heavy snow stretching from the Balkans through Alps to Spain.

In Slovakia, temperatures dipped as low as -18.4C.

From Poland to Spain, within the last 10 days, the March average has went from average to firmly below average.

10 days ago.

Now

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