SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor
DATE: November 26, 2016
SNIP: The Arctic archipelago of Svalbard has seen such extreme warmth this year that the average annual temperature could end up above freezing for the first time on record, scientists said Friday.
Ketil Isaksen of the Norwegian Meterological Institute said that the average temperature in Longyearbyen, the main settlement in Svalbard, is expected to be around 0 Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) with a little over a month left of the year.
“This is a little bit shocking,” Dr. Isaksen said. “If you had asked me five or 10 years ago, I could not have imagined such numbers in 2016.”