Wea­ther capers in Spits­ber­gen

The last days have seen some rather unusu­al wea­ther phe­no­me­na in Spits­ber­gen. On Mon­day (Janu­a­ry 30), Lon­gye­ar­by­en was the war­mest place in Nor­way with 4 degrees cen­tig­ra­de abo­ve free­zing. 26,5 mm of rain did not make it more enjoya­ble, and as a con­se­quence, several roads had to be clo­sed due to a stron­gly incre­a­sed avalan­che risk and a lan­ding at the air­port had to be can­cel­led due to slick­ness.

The rain was not­hing com­pa­red to Ny Åle­sund, whe­re a con­si­derable 98 mm were mea­su­red wit­hin 24 hours, which is clear­ly a local record. The war­mest day mea­su­red in Spits­ber­gen so far in Janu­a­ry was howe­ver Janu­a­ry 01, 2006, when the mer­cu­ry went up to 7,7 degrees. In com­pa­ri­son, one year ago (Janu­a­ry 30, 2011) it was as cold as 31,5 degrees below zero.

Chan­ging wea­ther with cold and warm spells is typi­cal for the cold sea­son, but the recent warm pha­se is unusual­ly long and inten­se.

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten

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