Extre­me wea­ther in Spits­ber­gen: Lon­gye­ar­by­en part­ly evacua­ted

Octo­ber had alre­a­dy been quite extre­me in Spits­ber­gen, with unu­sual­ly warm tem­pe­ra­tures and a lot of rain. The­re were mud­flows from Pla­tå­berg across the road bet­ween the church and Huset, the road was tem­po­r­a­ri­ly clo­sed.

Now it is get­ting worse: up to 50 mm pre­ci­pi­ta­ti­on or even more are expec­ted during the night from Mon­day (Novem­ber 7) to Tues­day. Below 500 m alti­tu­de the pre­ci­pi­ta­ti­on is expec­ted to fall as rain. Seve­ral roads in and near Lon­gye­ar­by­en are clo­sed and hou­ses in seve­ral roads are evacua­ted becau­se of the risk of ava­lan­ches.

The Sys­sel­man­nen has issued seve­ral war­nings. Among­st others, peo­p­le are reques­ted to stay away from steep ter­rain and from old buil­dings such as mines and parts of the old coal cable­car, which may col­lap­se in extre­me winds.

The dan­ger of snow ava­lan­ches in hig­her ter­rain is high (stage 4).

The wea­ther is expec­ted to calm down Tues­day mor­ning. Fin­gers crossed all goes well until then.

P.S. Per­so­nal remark for fri­ends of the aut­hor: our home in Lon­gye­ar­by­en is not in the con­cer­ned area.

The mark­ed parts of Lon­gye­ar­by­en are curr­ent­ly (Novem­ber 7) clo­sed due to the extre­me wea­ther. Map © Sys­sel­man­nen på Sval­bard.

Source: Sys­sel­man­nen

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