Iceland’s Potato Harvest Hit By Cold, Wet; Pacific Cooling; Massive Coronal Hole; Canadian Politics Ditches Climate Hype In Search For Votes; + Big Oil Is No Longer Western

Climate panic is fading. Fossil fuels are back.

Iceland’s Potato Harvest Hit By Cold, Wet

Iceland’s potato harvest suffered greatly in 2024, with just 5,514 tons produced—the lowest yield in over 30 years, according to Statistics Iceland.

The sharp decline was due to an abnormally cold and wet summer: low temperatures, above-average precipitation, and a lingering snowpack kept soils cold and saturated—disastrous for potato crops.

Spuds need warm, well-drained soils—ideally 15–21C (60–70F)—to form healthy tubers. But in much of northern Iceland, fields stayed waterlogged and cold into mid-summer. Some potatoes couldn’t be planted at all; others saw weak emergence and poor yields.

Consistently low temperatures also hammered carrots, turnips, and grains.

With Iceland’s short growing season and limited farmland, even a single bad summer can wreak havoc on food production and farm incomes. The recent failures highlight how vulnerable northern farming systems are to the COLD TIMES.

Particularly for marginal climates like Iceland’s, a cold, wet summer is enough to devastate harvests.

Pacific Cooling

Over the past few weeks, sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the Eastern Tropical Pacific have tanked by up to 10C. The most extreme cooling has been observed along the equator, particularly off the coasts of Peru and Ecuador.