Remnant of Hurricane Isaias Intensifies into Record-Breaking Cyclone Near Iceland
The former Hurricane Isaias transformed into an extratropical cyclone that swept past Iceland on October 14, delivering hurricane-force winds and possibly setting a new low-pressure record.
Hurricane Isaias, the only Atlantic hurricane of 2026, made landfall in Florida as a Category 2 system on October 9 before heading east across the North Atlantic. There, its remnants reorganized into an extratropical cyclone that passed close to Iceland on the afternoon of October 14. The storm’s central pressure dropped by more than 50 hectopascals within a day, meeting the criteria for explosive cyclogenesis and potentially breaking Iceland’s October low-pressure record dating back to 1963.
Near the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, a wind gust of 205 km/h was logged, and a small offshore island experienced sustained winds of 150 km/h, with additional damaging gusts reported in northern Iceland. The system’s influence extended to northwestern Scotland, where gusts reached 90 km/h and caused several ferry services to be suspended. Images captured by the VIIRS instrument on NOAA-21 and processed by NASA’s Earth Observatory illustrate the storm’s comma-shaped cloud pattern as it moved across the region.
Why it matters
The storm illustrates how tropical remnants can become extreme mid-latitude cyclones, posing sudden hazards to Europe and challenging forecasting.
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