Record-High Temperatures in Svalbard and Northern Norway This Summer

While the summer in Southern Norway rained away, Northern Norway experienced drought and high temperatures. On Svalbard, there have been consistently high temperatures also in the ground surface since mid-June. This has led to an extreme thawing of the permafrost.

"This summer's thawing of the permafrost on Svalbard breaks all previous records," says climate researcher Ketil Isaksen in a press release from the Meteorological Institute.

He says that he is deeply concerned about what the researchers are now registering.

The average temperature in the permafrost has also increased. Before this year's measurements, the temperature in the permafrost had risen by more than two degrees ten meters below the surface. Svalbard has also set two new heat records this summer.

In July, temperatures above the polar climate were measured at the arctic stations, i.e. an average temperature of ten degrees or more. And in August, the average temperature at Svalbard Airport was 8.4 degrees.

The summer season in Northern Norway, taken as a whole, is classified as "Extremely hot" in large parts of Troms and Finnmark, and "Very warm" or "Warm" in Nordland. The region of Northern Norway recorded the 3rd warmest summer, beaten only by 1937 and 1972.

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