Street floo­ded in Advent­da­len

The extre­me wea­ther in the north Atlan­tic has brought this sec­tor of the Arc­tic again into inter­na­tio­nal media. A strong low pres­su­re is pum­ping warm air up north, resul­ting in unu­sual­ly high tem­pe­ra­tures in Sval­bard and the cen­tral Arc­tic. In Lon­gye­ar­by­en, the mer­cu­ry went up to almost 9°C, making it war­mer than in parts of cen­tral Euro­pe at the same time. Strong rain­fall did not make it nicer, with up to 50 mm within two days in Ny Åle­sund.

Warm air incur­si­ons in mid­win­ter are a more or less regu­lar phe­no­me­non in the mari­ti­me cli­ma­te of Sval­bard, but the cur­rent event is quite strong.

The com­bi­na­ti­on of mild tem­pe­ra­tures and rain lets the snow melt and the rivers flow. In Lon­gye­ar­by­en, a litt­le bridge local­ly known as Per­le­por­ten, a walk­way across the river coming out of Vann­led­nings­da­len, is curr­ent­ly clo­sed by the aut­ho­ri­ties. His­to­ri­cal­ly, melt­wa­ter ava­lan­ches coming out of Vann­led­nings­da­len have been fatal on occa­si­ons. In June 1953, seve­ral buil­dings were dama­ged and three peo­p­le died.

Now, seve­ral tri­bu­t­a­ry rivers in Advent­da­len are floo­ding the road, making traf­fic impos­si­ble. The public is asked to avo­id any unneces­sa­ry traf­fic.

Source: local social net­works

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