Swing in the air

When people think about the Arctic in winter, one of the thoughts is usually coldness. It has to be cold, constantly. Yep, often it's so, but not constantly. It's kind of normal to have some plus Celcius-degrees suddenly even middle of winter. And anyhow temperature is swinging strongly especially in winters.

In this weekend we had that kind of warm period. Just a week ago we had temperatures down around -30C, yesterday there were up to 4,5 plus-degrees and pouring rain - relatively, as much as it can be pouring in our half desert climate. Storm pushed ice away from part of Isfjorden and and sea was black and unwelcoming. Today it's fortunately colder again and precipitation comes down with form of snow and we have got some new drift-ice in the fjord. Storm is welcomed as long as precipitation is coming down as snow. That's just good for scooter season - and also for reindeers.

Weather is actually quite fascinating subject to talk about. Especially nowadays, when there has been so much talk about changing climate caused by human activity. Climate is getting warmer, especially in the Arctic areas. And that seems to cause very cold and snowy winters in the mainland, strangely enough. There seems to be logic with this, but the issue is pretty complicated.

In the picture you can see what kind of temperatures we had last year. Notice the warm periods during the coldest winter time!

http://www.yr.no/sted/Norge/Svalbard/Longyearbyen/statistikk.html