Daily Times

Pop singer Helgi Bjornsson, who is well-known in his native Iceland for a 1980s hit titled “I Do Like the Rain,” recently appeared on national television while a deadpan reporter challenged him to defend the song’s premise.

The people of Reykjavik do not like the rain anymore. This summer has been so gray and wet in the capital of Iceland that meteorologists have to look as far back as 1914 to find records for a worse May and June.

In other parts of Europe, especially Britain and Scandinavia, a heat wave is expected to continue well into July.

The stark contrast is no coincidence. High pressure over western Europe alters the jet stream and pushes clouds and rain over the continent’s northern posts, causing foul weather in this North Atlantic island nation.

“It’s the other side of the heat wave token,” Iceland meteorologist Trausti Jonsson said. “The people of Reykjavik are paying for the sunshine in England and southern Scandinavia.”

Published in Daily Times, July 5^th 2018.