Akureyri sää — huhtikuu

April in the north of Iceland is still winter, and regulars say so without hedging: mountain passes can be icy, early April can be properly wintry up here, and late April is usually mild - which is the whole month in one sentence. Their advice is to carry plans A, B and C and to watch road conditions rather than the calendar. Our column agrees rather than softening it: 41.1cm of snow across the month, 7.1C by day reading as 4C, nights at -1C feeling like -5C, and 64.3mm falling across 13.4 days. The compensation is light - 15.4 hours of daylight already, and climbing fast. The record: humidity 84 percent, 9.4 hours of sun and AQI 40.

Regulars are direct that no one predicts the weather here accurately this month, rain and wind a near-constant feature of a genuinely unsettled autumn, though magical minutes or hours of sunshine can break through between the clouds and drizzle. Our row backs that cold, genuinely wet read, 11.9C over 3.9C nights feeling as low as 1C, with a substantial 140.6mm of rain across 18.9 days and real early snow, 31.5cm already possible by the second week. Regulars are consistent high season winds down by the end of the month, and the northern lights themselves become a real possibility again as nights grow properly dark. Genuinely warm layers plus wind and rain protection remain the standard advice throughout. The record: humidity 86 percent, 5.9 hours of sun and a 10.2 kph wind.

Regulars warn that May in the north is not the May of the south: spring comes late here, so a green landscape is not to be assumed, and there can still be snow in the north and at the mountain passes. Their advice is to watch the forecast and be ready to drive in it, because cool weather, rain and snow can all turn up in one day, especially over a hundred miles of road. One traveller's car showed 0 to 10C across early May, and our row sits inside that at 11.3C over 2.7C, feeling like 9C and -1C. It carries 25.1cm of snow. The compensation is the light: 19.2 hours of daylight and 11.4 of sun. The record: 64.6mm across 13.4 days and AQI 36.

August nights in lowland north Iceland run 5 to 10C and colder in the Highlands, which our row's 6.6C - reading as 5C - sits inside. Regulars say it would be unusual not to want a fleece or a heavy jumper at some point, on top of waterproofs, and that the change can be minutes rather than hours: warm sun on a hike, then cold windy rain. Some visitors do hit a heat wave and get shorts weather. Our 9.1 kph is much gentler than the near-constant wind and 20mph gusts they warn about, because Akureyri sits sheltered at the head of a long fjord while the open north coast and the interior do not - take the row as the town, not the trip. The 6.7cm of August snow is the Highlands in the grid square. The record: 14.9C days, 99.7mm across 15.4 precipitation days, 16.6 hours of daylight and AQI 26.

June in Akureyri is the month with no real night - around 22.5 hours of daylight at the solstice - and the forum attaches a useful local observation to it: days are often windy and wet, and the weather frequently comes good in the evening, with midnight running several degrees warmer than four in the afternoon. That is part of the case for the midnight-sun whale sailings, which also have fewer boats out and better odds with it. The Akureyri trips run down Eyjafjordur, Iceland's longest fjord, sheltered enough to be a calm sail; Husavik over the mountains has the bigger sightings reputation and the rougher water. Tours are seasonal and cancelled at short notice, so book ahead and leave slack. The record: 13.9C days that feel like 12C, 6C nights, 16.5 precipitation days carrying 102.2mm and 10.5 hours of sun.