Early Instrumental Meteorological Observations in Iceland

Abstract

When the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) was established in 1872 it took over the responsibility of meteorological observations in Iceland. Prior to that time, the observations were in the hands of enthusiastic individuals, in some cases in close contact with the international scientific community. The original data compiled by these latter observers are kept at the Manuscript Section of the Icelandic National Library and in the Archives of the Icelandic Meteorological Office. Much of this material was gradually delivered to Iceland (along with other documents from official Danish archives) after the formal independence of Iceland in 1918. This paper presents an overview of instrumental observations available from the pre-1872 era. The oldest such observations that have been found were made in 1749 to 1751 and in 1763. The temporal density increases after 1775, and from 1822 there is at least one instrumental observation to be found on each and every day, somewhere in Iceland. During the period 1776 to 1822 there are many gaps, some only short, others long; with the longest from late 1814 to mid 1820. During this last gap almost no instrumental records have been found. The quality of the observations is very variable, but generally they seem to be at least internally consistent, and will certainly become an important addition to the knowledge of the climate and climatic variability of the Northeast Atlantic region. A large part of the data are available in digital format. The present study gives a richer and more comprehensive view of the meteorological activities in Iceland during the “Early Instrumental Period” (EIP), than previously available. It includes a summary of the early history of meteorological measurements in Iceland. Weather diaries without quantitative measurements are outside the scope of this paper.