It rained on December 15th in Svalbard and the resulting ice made it difficult for reindeer to graze. The reindeer likely starved to death after being unable to find food, according to scientists at the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI).

Sixty-one thousand reindeer starved to death in the northwestern reaches of the Russian tundra in November 2013 in the largest recorded mortality event of its kind.

Two extreme weather events in 2006 and 2013 caused mass starvation among the reindeer herds, and researchers for the first time have linked these extreme weather events in the coastal mainland in northwest Russia with sea ice loss in the adjoining Barents and Kara seas.