Rain In December On Svalbard (@ 74-81 Degrees North); Glaciers Melting, Landslides Proliferating
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Much of the damage is already occurring, researchers point out, given melting ice on and around Svalbard and its recent spate of avalanches and landslides. Svalbard’s glaciers are already said to be “considerably reduced” just in the past few years. Temperatures have been warmer on Svalbard than on the Norwegian mainland several times this winter, rain has fallen instead of snow in December, and the permafrost has melted so much that buildings need to be reinforced. The entrance around Svalbard’s famed international seed vault that was dug into a mountainside above the airport and Longyearbyen less than 20 years ago also has needed to be reinforced.
“The findings are very dramatic,” Inger Hanssen-Bauer, a senior researcher at the state Meteorologic Institute, told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) when the report was released this week. It’s called “Climate in Svalbard 2100” and predicts that temperatures can be 10 degrees higher then than they are now.
Hanssen-Bauer also leads Norsk Klimaservicesenter (the Norwegian Climate Service Center) and firmly believes that “we’re facing enormously large changes. I’m afraid we’ll also get more surprises.”
The speed at which changes are occurring, and the sheer visibility of them, are causing the greatest concern. Temperatures have already been above normal for the past 98 months in a row, according to the report, and the month of January was 4.7 degress warner than normal. Another report issued just last fall also noted how climate change was seriously threatening Svalbard.
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https://www.newsinenglish.no/2019/02/08/climate-change-ravages-svalbard/