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MARCHING ON HIGH: New temperature record for month as Ny-Ålesund hits 5.5C on Wednesday – 17C above normal – and 42.6mm of rain falls; Longyearbyen also gets wet thaw

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Photo by Ine-Therese Pedersen / Norwegian Meteorological Institute

Surely there are upsides to mountainsides and streets being filled with tons of flowing slush during a torrential rain. But for experts and mere mortals opining about a record heat wave hitting Svalbard on Wednesday the only optimism was about returning to typical subzero winter conditions – and even that brings its own deluge of problems.

Ny-Ålesund set a record-high temperature for March at 5.5. degrees Celsius on Wednesday, with the international research settlement also hit by a far-above-normal rainfall of 42.6 millimeters of rain, according to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. Longyearbyen saw a similar high of 5.4C, which like Ny-Ålesund was about 17C above normal, although the mere three millimeters of rain was more nuisance than threat.

Those “above normal” temperatures, by the way, are based on a benchmark that took effect last year based on the years 1991-2020, which are notably above the previous average for 1961-1990 since climate change is affecting Svalbard faster than anywhere else on Earth (up to seven times the global average, according to a report published earlier this year).

“In Svalbard we have had mild weather far back in time,” Ketil Isaksen, a climate researcher for the institute, told NRK. “But now it is more intense and the temperatures are higher. Before, you exceeded zero and had one or two plus degrees for a few hours. Now it is five to six plus degrees in the warmest places, and it lasts longer and happens more often.”

Social media posts from both communities were full of slushy sadness on Wednesday and, at least in Longyearbyen, some thankfulness as snow and sub-zero temperatures returned Thursday. But, as NRK put it, the return of freezing weather – and thaw/freezing cycles – poses problems for both man and beast.

“The mild weather can create trouble for people, animals and nature,” an article posted at the network’s website notes. “Melting snow can turn into mirror-shiny ice on roads and runways when sub-zero temperatures return. It can create a grazing crisis when reindeer do not have access to their food supply under the ice. Warmer weather can also lead to more avalanches and slush.”

About Post Author

Mark Sabbatini

I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation. Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads. But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
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