At Longyearbyen airport, the peak temperature reached 9.2 °C for a short period, nearly two degrees warmer than the last November record measured in 1975.
Warm summer days lasted all August along the coast to the Barents Sea, from Hammerfest in the west to Kirkenes in the east. The latter is now experiencing the warm weather to last into September with several days reaching maximum temperatures up to 20 degrees Celsius (68 F).
Longyearbyen airport had an average temperature of 6.1°C, which is 2.5°C above normal. Global air and sea surface temperatures were also at record levels.
Loaded with up to 38,000 tons of oil, the 245 meter long tanker Shturman Skuratov makes this year's first transit shipment on the Northern Sea Route. Despite major concentrations of sea-ice, the tanker sails without icebreaker assistance.
Gas pipes supplying Europe run right over swelling Yamal tundra which is deeply unstable to the release of underground methane.
Floodwaters in Tomsk region threatens to submerge the river banks in Seversk where highly radioactive liquid waste from the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons program for decades were injected into two unprotected underground reservoirs.
This crab from the Pacific Ocean was once introduced into the Barents waters of the Soviet Union in Arctic Russia. Since then the invasive species has spread to Norway’s Barents Sea and a multi-million dollar industry has sprung up around it. In 2023 Norway exported 2,500 tons of king crab worth 1,2 billion kroner (€100 million).
The isotope measured in air in Tromsø for now is unknown. The isotope comes from a nuclear reactor, and is used in medial diagnostic.
Regional authorities report about 55 new cases since yesterday, with major outbreaks reported from both local retirement homes and among workers at LKAB mining company.
Locals in the far northern Russian region believe between 60,000-80,000 animals might have died of starvation over the past few months. The tragedy follows the formation of a thick layer of ice across major parts of the Yamal tundra.
Poaching and climate change might be the reasons why more than 1,200 migrating animals did not make it across the wide Arctic waterway.
Few places in Europe were warmer than the Finnmark region on Tuesday. Nyrud in the Pasvik valley measured a peak at 25.3 degrees Celsius (77 F), actually higher than the Mediterranean coast of Spain and Italy.The normal chilly winds along the coast of Finnmark in Norway and Kola Peninsula in Russia were replaced by very warm air.
Grazing conditions are very poor this winter in Norway as an unusual amount of snow forces the reindeer to dig really deep to find food.
The glaciologists from Moscow came too late to see the MGU glacier in the North Ural.
The archipelagos in the northern Barents Sea and Kara Sea were up to 11 centigrades warmer than average last winter.
After days with record heat at Svalbard, the penetration of water from the above melting glacier is now flooding Norway’s only operating coal mine that supplies the country’s only coal-power plant.
The spraying 20 years ago was effective in reducing the infestation to a manageable level and seemed to do so for quite a while. That is, until now. Merrill Brady told me last week that he is inundated with tent caterpillars this year. His property is down by the greenbelt lots and the caterpillars are stripping the 60-foot cottonwoods and all other vegetation of all of their leaves.
Following mass deaths of animals, the once powerful cooperative managing the reindeer flocks in the island of Kolguyev shuts down.
A belt of warm air is currently stretching from northern Greenland across the North Pole to the Laptev and East Siberian Seas north of the Russian mainland. Northeast of Svalbard from Franz Josef Land to Severnaya Zemlya see similar heat. On a recent November weekend the average temperature was 6.7°C above normal across the Arctic.
In less than three years, the number of animals on the island of Kolguyev dropped from more than 12,000 to only 153.
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