Arctic Archipelago Is Heating Up In An Alarming Rate

As the global warming continues to hit, the Arctic archipelago is badly affected. The latest survey that was conducted shows that the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard is heating up and it is really alarming.

The scientists said on Friday that the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard is currently in such an extreme warmth this year. The average yearly temperature could end up higher than the freezing point. If that happens, it would be the first time to ever be recorded.

Ketil Isaksen of the Norwegian Meterological Institute mentioned that the average temperature in the main settlement in Svalbard that is the Longyearbyen is expected to be around 0 degree Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It will be over a month left in the year for the temperature to shift, according to ABC News.

"This is a little bit shocking.If you had asked me five or 10 years ago, I could not have imagined such numbers in 2016," said Isaksen.

Svalbard is an island group midway between the North Pole and continental Norway. The usual average is minus C (20 degrees F) and the warmest year until now was 2006. As the temperature in Svalbard was minus 1.8 degrees C (29 degrees F).

"Svalbard is a very good spot to show what's happening in the Arctic at the moment, noting that each of the past 73 months has been warmer than average," Isaksen added.

The Arctic rising temperature is already affecting the snow cover and the permafrost. Also, the amount of sea ice, which is in the second-lowest to be recorded this year is building up much slower than the usual as winter approaches.

Isaksen said that "There are still huge areas in the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea to the east of Svalbard that are free of ice. They should normally be ice-covered."

Meanwhile, the scientists believe that the loss of sea ice accelerates the warming because it reflects the sunlight back into space while the dark surface of the oceans takes in most of the radiation, as reported by The Independent.