{"id":72660,"date":"2026-10-14T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=72660"},"modified":"2026-10-16T16:04:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T16:04:03","slug":"rapidly-intensifying-midlatitude-cyclone-passes-over-iceland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/72660","title":{"rendered":"Rapidly-intensifying hurricane force midlatitude cyclone passes over Iceland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/10\/261014_meteosat11_waterVapor_Iceland.mov\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Hourly Meteosat-11 Water Vapor images, from 1600 UTC on 13 October to 2200 UTC on  14 October<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">EUMETSAT Meteosat-11 Water Vapor images <strong><em>(above)<\/em><\/strong> showed a warming\/drying signature (shades of yellow to orange) within the core of a rapidly-intensifying <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/10\/261013_261014_surfaceAnalyses_Iceland_anim.gif\">hurricane force<\/a><\/strong> midlatitude cyclone that eventually passed over Iceland on 14 October 2026 (<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/10\/261014_1200utc_sfc_bw_large.png\">1200 UTC surface analysis<\/a><\/strong>). A record-low October barometric pressure of 937.5 hPa was recorded at Vatnsskar\u00f0sh\u00f3lar (after altitude adjustment), breaking the previous Icelandic October low pressure value of 938 hPa set in 1963.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meteosat-11 Water Vapor images that included hourly plots of wind barbs and gusts are shown below.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/10\/MET11_WATER_VAPOR_B5_ICELAND_14OCT2026_loop_METEOSAT10_2026287_010000_2026287_211500.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>15-minute Meteosat-11 Water Vapor images with hourly plots of surface wind barbs (cyan) and wind gusts (yellow), from 0100-2215 UTC on 14 October<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A toggle between a pair of NOAA-21 VIIRS True Color RGB images <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong> provided higher-resolution views of the hurricane force low pressure system. Note the milky\/hazy appearance of cloud-free areas east and south of storm center (<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/10\/261014_noaa21_viirs_trueColorRGB_Iceland.gif\">animated gif version<\/a><\/strong>) &#8212; a result of enhanced diffuse reflection of sunlight off a very agitated sea surface where high waves and abundant sea spray were present (caused by stronger surface winds across those particular areas).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/10\/261014_noaa21_viirs_trueColorRGB_Iceland.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>NOAA-21 VIIRS True Color RGB images on 14 October<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A signature of this storm was evident on the northeast limb of the GOES-19 <em>(GOES-East)<\/em> Full Disk view &#8212; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/QuickGuide_GOESR_AirMassRGB_final-1.pdf\">Air Mass RGB<\/a><\/strong> images <em><strong>(below)<\/strong><\/em> included plots of METAR surface reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/10\/261014_g19_airmassRGB_Iceland.mov\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>10-minute GOES-19 Air Mass RGB images, from 0200-1500 UTC on 14 October<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One notable wind gust on Iceland was 71 knots (82 mph) at Vestmannaeyjar Airport BIVM <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong>.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/10\/261014_0800utc_g19_airMassRGB_bivm_metar.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/10\/261014_0800utc_g19_airMassRGB_bivm_metar.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>GOES-19 Air Mass RGB image at 0800 UTC on 14 October, with a cursor sample of the METAR report at BIVM [click to enlarge]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EUMETSAT Meteosat-11 Water Vapor images (above) showed a warming\/drying signature (shades of yellow to orange) within the core of a rapidly-intensifying hurricane force midlatitude cyclone that eventually passed over Iceland on 14 October 2026 (1200 UTC surface analysis). A record-low October barometric pressure of 937.5 hPa was recorded at Vatnsskar\u00f0sh\u00f3lar (after altitude adjustment), breaking the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":72662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159,23,131,53,45,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-goes-19","category-meteosat","category-noaa-21","category-real-earth","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images","category-viirs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72660"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72675,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72660\/revisions\/72675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}