A glacier on the southern tip of Sweden’s Kebnekaise mountain has melted so much that the height of the peak has shrunk, and it’s no longer the country’s tallest, scientists said this week.
The announcement came Wednesday in a press release declaring the mountain’s northern tip as the nation’s new tallest peak. From July 2 to 31, the southern tip lost 13 feet of snow to melting as much of Scandinavia baked in searing heat.
The result of this hot summer heat wave will be a record loss in snow and ice in the mountains. The news came after scientists measured both peaks and found the southern tip measured 6,880 feet above sea level, less than a foot taller than the mountain’s northern peak.
Last year, the southern tip was 6.5 feet taller than the northern tip at Kebnekaise. But according to Stockholm University, the glacier on the southern tip has melted more than 3 feet per year for the last two decades.
Global heatwave shown on University of Maine Map. Health authorities say up to 70 people may have died in Canada as a result of heat-related complications since the beginning of an early July heat wave that saw temperatures climb to more than 40 C with the humidex.
Stockholm University geography professor Gunhild Rosqvist said he has never seen this much melted snow on the southern peak this summer. The snow melt has been so rapid because of soaring temperatures that set all-time records in some parts of Sweden.
Even north of the Arctic Circle, the village of Kvikkjokk recorded an all-time high of 90.5 degrees Fahrenheit in July, and other areas recorded temperatures in the 90’s in Scandinavia, previously unseen heat for any time of year in the region.
The Big Wobble / Crickey Conservation Society 2018.
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