A study based on satellite images for the period from 1982 till today provides a clear trend. In the coastal areas in northern Norway, on the Kola Peninsula and in some of the coastal areas in northern Arkhangelsk Oblast the spring comes later today than 30 years ago.
The study is made by Northern Research Institute (Norut) in Tromsø, northern Norway.
- Our conclusions are based on images taken several times per day from weather-forecast satellites, combined with information from the ground by looking at when the threes get green, says senior researcher Stein Rune Karlsen at Norut to the newspaper Aftenposten. The researchers can by studying the more than 60.000 also see when the last snow melts in the spring.
Norut’s map showing most of Scandinavia and north-western part of Russia clearly indicates that the southern areas get the spring more than 10 days earlier today than before. The same goes for some parts of northern Sweden and along the Dvina river in Akhangelsk Oblast.
At the institute’s web-site you can see the different maps and animation maps interactively showing the changes in greens depending on the time of the year.
The colours on the map indicating when the spring comes compared with earlier:
Green: more than 10 days earlier
Light green: 4 to 10 days earlier
White: Same as before
Light blue: Later than before
Map: Northern Research Institute (Norut)
