400 residents lost the road connection and several houses were evacuated when a seven-mile-long ice stopper came loose, carrying large masses of ice and water. Today, the municipality is on inspection to look at the damage.
People in Longyearbyen have replaced parkas with a shell jacket. They must calculate with rainfall in January and February. Both snowmobiles and dogs must be parked. People are annoyed and disappointed. Others are very concerned.
The snowfall that came in the relatively mild Christmas season, was followed by severe cold and has caused the snow to freeze to bark and needles on conifers. The snow that now comes, settles on the branches in thick layers and is becoming heavier to carry.
Experts fear the future could be like the record year 2020: Shorter and warmer winters, wetter summers.
In the mountains there is more three or four times as much snow as normal. Experienced reindeer owners have never experienced such a difficult winter.
Inge Hamre and Marta Apelthun Hamre had to evacuate by boat as heavy rainfall turned their garden into a river.
On Wednesday, a new precipitation record was measured in Oslo with 22 millimeters in 10 minutes. "We had expected rain showers, but not that it would be so heavy," says state meteorologist.
Some species have experienced a much greater decline than average. For the snowflake in Scandinavia there is talk of approx. 35 percent, patchwork 25 percent.
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