Norway has been experiencing one of its coldest summers in decades, but scientists could confirm this week that one of the country’s glaciers has nonetheless become much smaller in recent years. They blame higher temperatures overall and relatively little snow in the area where it’s located.
The glacier, known as Engenbreen, is an arm jof Norway’s second-largest glacier, Svartisen in Nordland County, south of Bodø. It’s steadily shrinking year by year, reports Bjørn Godal of the local outdoors council, Salten friluftsråd.
He and his colleagues were on the glacier this week with measuring equipment and told state broadcaster NRK that the glacier had contracted between 150 and 230 meters since their last set of measurements in 2007. Official measurements by the waterways agency NVE put the shrinkage at 150 meters, while Godal’s crew suggests it could be more.
The edge of the glacier, Godal said, is now much farther away from the sea than it was when he was a teenager. NVE’s experts cited a combination of less precipitation during the winter months over the past 15 years.
newsinenglish.no staff