Even though it is gra­du­al­ly get­ting col­der in Spits­ber­gen, the news about record-brea­king tem­pe­ra­tures in the Arc­tic are not stop­ping. For six years, Sval­bard has been signi­fi­cant­ly war­mer than usu­al, and the tem­pe­ra­tures in Novem­ber were up to 10 degrees abo­ve avera­ge.

The con­se­quen­ces of some days of extre­me wea­ther with strong pre­ci­pi­ta­ti­on in Novem­ber: At least 50 lands­li­des and ava­lan­ches were obser­ved, parts of Lon­gye­ar­by­en even had to be evacua­ted.

Also in other parts of the Arc­tic it beco­mes obvious: It is quick­ly get­ting war­mer than befo­re. This appli­es both to the tem­pe­ra­tures on land as well as in the sea, whe­re up to four or even five (Isfjord, near Lon­gye­ar­by­en) degrees more have been mea­su­red. In some Arc­tic regi­ons, the air tem­pe­ra­tu­re was actual­ly 20 degrees abo­ve avera­ge (north pole).

And never befo­re has the­re been so litt­le ice on land as on the sea. Tri­cky: ice reflects the sun’s radia­ti­on. The less ice floats on the sea, the dar­ker the sea sur­face and the more suns­hi­ne is absor­bed. Rese­ar­chers are worried that the sum­mer sea ice might dis­ap­pear com­ple­te­ly from the Arc­tic.

In Lon­gye­ar­by­en, nobo­dy is curr­ent­ly expec­ting a good ice win­ter with fro­zen fjords for the 2017 sea­son.

On Spits­ber­gen it has been obser­ved for some time that the per­ma­frost ground is get­ting war­mer and beg­ins to thaw. This can lead to sett­le­ment dama­ges on buil­dings, as they are curr­ent­ly alre­a­dy obser­ved in seve­ral cases in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. In other Arc­tic regi­ons such as Sibe­ria, the tha­wing of per­ma­frost ground in mars­hy are­as, which have stored a lot of orga­nic mate­ri­al in the cold soil, also leads to the release of lar­ge amounts of the high­ly aggres­si­ve green­house gas metha­ne, which fur­ther sti­mu­la­tes cli­ma­te chan­ge.

Cli­ma­te chan­ge is no lon­ger a sca­ry news­pa­per mes­sa­ge on Spits­ber­gen, but an ever­y­day expe­ri­ence with effects on peo­p­les’ dai­ly life. More warm win­ters, ava­lan­ches and lands­li­des and evacua­tions have to be expec­ted in Spits­ber­gen in the coming years.

Sources: NRK, Cli­ma­te Home