Abnormally warm winter on Svalbard   

(Barents Observer, 23 March 2012) -- The 80 first days of 2012 were a lot warmer than normal on the Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard. The weather has been anything but normal on Svalbard this year. Since the beginning of the year the inhabitants of one of the world’s northernmost settlements have experienced record heat, avalanches, rain and ice-free fjords. The temperature has been 11°C above the normal since the beginning of the year, Svalbardposten writes. The warmest day so far this year was February 8, with +7°C. Longyearbyen has had 90 millimeters of precipitation so far this year, nearly twice the normal. But this is nothing compared to Ny-Ålesund, where 97 percent of the normal annual precipitation came during the first 80 days of the year.

Posted 23 March 2012; 10:47:16 AM.   Permalink

Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate change and weather, March12, Norway, Svalbard