Iceland hit a record temperature of nearly 20°C (68°F) on Christmas Eve, underscoring the phenomenon of “Arctic amplification.”
Like other polar regions, Iceland’s climate is warming two to four times faster than the global average, harming infrastructure and industries built for cold conditions. Warmer waters disrupt economically critical fisheries, and melting ice has damaged roads there and in neighboring Greenland — changes that are fueling competition between the US, Russia, and, increasingly, China for control over new Arctic shipping routes.
Christmas Eve’s reading caps a year of climate milestones for Iceland: It recorded its hottest-ever May temperature, and mosquitoes were spotted for the first time, meaning Antarctica is, for now, the only Earth territory free of the insects.