Lightning Storm Unleashes Chaos Across Southern Iceland
On Monday, a fierce lightning storm swept through southern Iceland, knocking out power and disrupting infrastructure across a wide area.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office recorded approximately 3,000 lightning strikes during the storm. The worst of it was felt south of the capital and out over the adjacent coastal waters.
The electrical grid took a serious blow when a lightning strike hit the Búrfellslína 1 transmission line, operated by Landsnet. Outages spread across South Iceland, affecting communities from Landeyjar to Vík in Mýrdal. Mosfellsbær, Vestmannaeyjar, and Borgarfjörður eystri all saw interruptions, and both Keflavík Airport and Alþingishúsið lost power briefly — backup systems kicked in at both locations.
Geophysicist Þórður Arason put the scale of the event in perspective: “Over the country itself, there were about 850 lightning strikes. Over the sea, south of Iceland, there were even more. I think we are looking at around three thousand strikes altogether.”
Thunderstorms are a rare thing in Iceland — Reykjavík typically sees only two thunderstorm days a year. Þórður was careful not to read too much into this one event, saying, “It fluctuates; sometimes we see only one day, other times four. Given the rarity of these events, drawing conclusions can be challenging.”
Repairs are underway across the affected regions as crews work to get things back to normal.
