While nearly all the low pressure systems evaded Central Europe during the last couple of weeks, a lot of storms hit Northern Europe. One particularly strong depression affects Spitsbergen with hurricane force winds this weekend (19th/20th of December).
In Spitsbergen’s main town – Longyearbean – winds of up to 110 km/h were measured during Friday night. Further south in a town called ‘Hornsund’ the maximum wind gusts reached even higher values. With a maximum measured wind speed of 148 km/h, the extraordinary strong low produced hurrican force winds. The strong gusts coupled with temperatures below freezing additionally make the air feel a lot colder.
A lot of fresh snow
At this time of the year Spitsbergen is normally nearly fully enclosed by arctic sea ice. This leads on average to very low temperatures, and therefore to very dry conditions. In this year the situation looks a lot different, as there is no sea ice at all around the archipelago. Hence the temperatures are a lot higher than on average and there is also a lot more moisture available for producing high amounts of precipitation. With the passage of this exceptionally strong storm a lot of areas will therefore get up to 50 cm of fresh snow in 24 hours, which are extraordinary amounts for this time of the year.