Vegagerðin road cameras

Vegagerðin, the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration, keeps a camera at almost every weather station on the national road network. They exist for drivers: in a country where a road can be closed by wind, snow or ash within the hour, being able to look at the road before setting out is a safety measure rather than a convenience.

That makes them unusually useful for volcano watching as well. The cameras sit in the open, at fixed angles, with nothing between them and the horizon, and several of the southern ones happen to face the ice caps that cover Eyjafjallajökull, Katla and Mýrdalsjökull. When those volcanoes are in the news, these are among the first images available.

The images are published openly and credited to the administration, with a new frame every few minutes.