Dismal record - warmest in 49 years

Svalbard
Record heat on Svalbard – Elizabeth: "Exceptionally warm and wet"
Highest temperature in 49 years

Christina Nordh

Published 12.12

A record amount of ice has melted on Svalbard this summer, according to the EU's Earth observation program Copernicus. Photo: Copernicus

The temperature reached up to 20.3 degrees.

Not much for the record, one might think.

But it is about Svalbard.

Quick version

• For the first time ever, the temperature was measured above 20°C in August on Svalbard, with the peak being 20.3 degrees outside Longyearbyen.
• According to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, this record heat shows a rapid climate change in the Arctic, where the temperature has increased significantly faster than in the rest of the world.
• This affects local ecosystems dramatically, with reduced ice cover and more landslides, underscoring the acute and widespread effects of climate change.
  

The temperature on Sunday is the highest since the measurements started in Longyearbyen in 1975.

According to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, it is the hottest August ever recorded, writes The Barents Observer. The record was measured at the Svalbard airport a few kilometers outside Longyearbyen.

The temperature is the highest since the measurements started in Longyearbyen in 1975. Photo: Norsk Klimaservicesenter

Two degrees up

Normally, the wind is light in August at the 78th latitude in the Arctic.

The old record was 18.1 degrees. August 11 pushed the mercury up just over two degrees, 20.3 degrees.

- The difference now is that the changes have happened so quickly, they have never done that before, so you can see the difference in thousands of years. The fact that heat records are broken by so much is also quite remarkable, says meteorologist Lasse Rydqvist on Klart.

During Monday, the temperature went up to 20.1 degrees.

During the period 1991–2020, the average mean temperature during June–August was 5.5 degrees at Svalbard Airport. The average of the last ten years is 6.4 degrees, according to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.

The Arctic and Svalbard are among the areas in the world most affected by climate change. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT

The ice cap is shrinking

Here, a hundred miles from the North Pole, there are around 3,500 polar bears, just under 3,000 people and the earth's seed bank as well. But the warmer weather is causing the ice sheet to shrink. It also means that it rains more, landslides have become more common, as has erosion along the coasts, writes BO.

According to the scientists, the Arctic is warming at least three times faster than the rest of the Earth. According to the Norwegian Polar Institute, this is mainly due to melting ice and snow exposing darker surfaces and then increasing the amount of solar energy absorbed in those areas.

- This can be regarded as a weather event. You have to look at this and see what conclusions can be drawn with climate change, says Lasse Rydqvist.

The American Elizabeth Bourne has lived on Svalbard for seven years and seen the climate changes with her own eyes. - I am worried, like any other sane person, she says. Photo: Private

Record hot for over a year

13 months in a row have been record warm and each month has reached more than 1.5 degrees above the pre-industrial temperature, according to the Paris Agreement.

The artist and photographer Elizabeth Bourne came to Svalbard seven years ago from Seattle in the USA. She has been documenting Svalbard ever since.

- This is an exceptionally hot and wet summer. A lot of rain, very hot weather. It increases the risk of landslides from the mountains and the rate of lost ice from the glaciers. The glaciers are not only shrinking faster, they are also getting thinner. When I moved here it was classified as an arctic desert, now the weather is about to become more like in northern England, she writes to Aftonbladet.

She is worried, "like any other sane person", as she writes:

- What happens here has a direct impact on what happens everywhere. Climate change is not only in the Arctic, but also with rising sea levels, droughts and heat waves in other parts of the world. Everything is connected. It's changing faster here, but it doesn't stop at our border.

- The hottest day here is not that hot if you compare it to other places. But too hot here means killer heat for 40 or more places that are used to lower temperatures.

But heat records are not only broken in the Arctic. Asia has also had high temperatures.

- Exactly, including in Suji in China. 42.3 degrees. It is an August record, both for nights and for the maximum temperature during the day. And so it is for many different places. So each station has its own heat record. In 2022, China had the worst heat wave that has been observed, it was so long that it was completely crazy, says Lasse Rydqvist.

Japan also breaks heat records:

- Just this year island groups stand out. In the Caribbean, the Pacific, Micronesia and away towards Asia. Heat records are broken day and night. Even the world's oceans have been warmer. They are 0.66 degrees above the reference period 1991–2020. The average temperature is 16.87 degrees, which it has never been this late in August.

Hot in Japan earlier this summer. "Heat records are broken day and night," says Klart's meteorologist Lasse Rydqvist about the temperatures in Asia. Photo: Eugene Hoshiko/AP

Other islands that break records are the British ones.

The hottest day of the year occurred there on July 19: 31.9 degrees in central London. Until Monday. Then the temperature rose to 34.8 degrees in Cambridge, writes Sky News.

Summer heat in London on Monday. In Cambridge, north of the capital, it was 34.8 degrees during the day. Photo: Jordan Pettitt/AP

Heat during Tuesday

According to the British Met Office, this is only the eleventh year since 1961 that “temperatures as high as these have been recorded.

- Eight of those years have occurred since 2000 and six of them have occurred in the last decade, according to the Met Office.

Here at home in Sweden, the temperature is pushed up during Tuesday due to warm air from Southern Europe. In Halland and Skåne the temperature ends up at 27–28 degrees. The rest of the country gets varied cloudiness and 19–24 degrees.