{"id":1624,"date":"2012-09-11T16:57:31","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T16:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/?p=1624"},"modified":"2012-09-11T16:58:50","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T16:58:50","slug":"the-waterfall-that-flowed-into-the-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/2012\/09\/11\/the-waterfall-that-flowed-into-the-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"The waterfall that flowed into the sky."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>B\u00faast m\u00e1 vi\u00f0 stormi<\/em> (= a storm is expected) is a sentence that makes me immediately a little bit worried whenever I see it at the Icelandic Met Office<\/a>‘s webpages. It tends to mean it’s soon going to be impossible to walk outdoors and if going out cannot be avoided it’ll be a very uncomfortable experience to say the least. The wind will be so strong (yesterday and today’s record seems to be 31 m\/s at Papeyjar<\/em>) it’s hard to walk against it and there will be all kinds of things flying around f.ex. toys, sand, litter, things that you’d rather not catch with your face*. At least breathing will be effortless. You only need to open your mouth and the weather will take care of everything else.<\/p>\n

An Icelandic wind detector, according to a joke, is a thick pole stuck vertically into the ground with a piece of heavy iron chain attached to the top. The degree of the chain’s angle tells you the weather, albeit on a little bit Icelandic a scale: 0\u00b0 means for example that the wind detector is broken, please contact the maintenance. 40\u00b0 is a breeze, 80\u00b0 comes with a warning of low-flying trucks and 90\u00b0 – Velkomin til \u00cdslands<\/em>! Yet some news of yesterday’s storm makes this joke sound somewhat less funny.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was snowing over Esjan<\/a>. On an ordinary day the mountain is fully visible, during the worst of the weather it could barely be seen at all.<\/em><\/p>\n

The storm went over the whole country but the areas that were hit the worst were Vestmannaeyjar<\/em>\u00a0in the south and the northeast corner of Iceland.\u00a0Many areas in the north-east\u00a0are still without electricity<\/a>, lots of sheep are dead, buried in snow<\/a>, a whole waterfall, Seljalandsfoss<\/em>, turned upwards<\/a>\u00a0and asphalt was torn off roads<\/a>. Rocks flying around shattered windows of houses and cars and up north over thirty travelers were stuck in their cars near Dettifoss<\/em>. The volunteer rescue units, Bj\u00f6rgunarsveitinn<\/em>, have definitely been busy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet the fact remains that heavy storms are not unusual for this country and for this time of the year. It’s just one more thing Icelanders have put up with for as long as they have lived here. Eskimo-Aleut languages are often claimed\u00a0to have “a thousand words for snow” and while this is not exactly correct, what about Icelanders and words that mean wind? Let’s see how many I can quickly find:<\/p>\n

Andvari<\/em> = very light breeze
\nBeljandi<\/em> = roaring wind
\nBl\u00e1stur<\/em> = breeze
\nBl\u00e6r<\/em> = gentle breeze
\nBr\u00e6la<\/em> = fog, wind and rain that happen all at the same time
\nF\u00e1rvi\u00f0ri<\/em> = hurricane, pretty much the worst you can get
\nGola\/stinningsgola<\/em> = breeze\/moderately strong breeze
\nGj\u00f3la<\/em> = fresh breeze
\nGustur<\/em> = gust
\nHvass\/allhvass\/hvassvi\u00f0ri<\/em> = windy\/moderate gale\/gale
\nIllvi\u00f0ri<\/em> = tempest
\nKaldi\/stinningskaldi<\/em> = fresh breeze\/strong breeze
\nKul<\/em> = breeze
\nLogn<\/em> = calm (no wind)
\nMannska\u00f0ave\u00f0ur<\/em> = bad weather that causes casualties
\nOfsave\u00f0ur<\/em> = violent storm
\nOfvi\u00f0ri<\/em> = violent storm, tempest
\nRok\/h\u00e1va\u00f0rok\/aftakarok<\/em> = storm\/harsh storm\/violent storm
\nSnarpur<\/em> = brisk
\nStormur<\/em> = storm
\nStrekkingur<\/em> = strong breeze
\nS\u00fagur<\/em> = draft of air
\nVindur<\/em> = wind<\/p>\n

I found in total 29 words and these are likely not even nearly all of them. Do you know more words in Icelandic that mean wind?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*Here’s an Icelandic Toyota ad that makes some very good examples of this<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

B\u00faast m\u00e1 vi\u00f0 stormi (= a storm is expected) is a sentence that makes me immediately a little bit worried whenever I see it at the Icelandic Met Office‘s webpages. It tends to mean it’s soon going to be impossible to walk outdoors and if going out cannot be avoided it’ll be a very uncomfortable…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":1630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[91379],"tags":[91391,2332,91392,91396,13,169],"class_list":["post-1624","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-icelandic-customs","tag-living-in-iceland-info","tag-nature","tag-post-full-of-links","tag-so-icelandic","tag-vocabulary","tag-weather"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t