Longyearbyen: Town and administrative centre in Svalbard, Norway
Longyearbyen is the largest settlement and the administrative centre of Svalbard, Norway.
As of 2013, the town had a population of 2,043.
Climate
Because Longyearbyen is quite far north, it has very long daylight hours during the summer, and very short daylight hours in the winter. It has midnight sun between 19 April and 25 August. Longyearbyen has polar night between 27 October and 15 February. It is milder than other places at the same latitude, due to warming from the sea. This means that surprisingly high temperatures can occur. For example, Longyearbyen reached almost into double figures Celsius on 30 January 1984. The warmest recorded temperature was as high as 25 °C (77 °F) on 17 July 1977. The coldest temperature was a very cold −46.3 °C (−51.3 °F) on 4 March 1986. Longyearbyen is badly affected by global warming, due to its Arctic position. On 1 August 2015, a record August temperature of 23.6 °C (74.5 °F) was recorded.
| Climate data for Svalbard Airport Longyearbyen 1991-2020 (28 m, extremes 1975-2020) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 7.7 (45.9) | 7 (45) | 6.3 (43.3) | 7.5 (45.5) | 12.9 (55.2) | 15.7 (60.3) | 21.7 (71.1) | 18.1 (64.6) | 15.2 (59.4) | 10.1 (50.2) | 9.2 (48.6) | 8.7 (47.7) | 21.7 (71.1) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −10.9 (12.4) | −11.6 (11.1) | −12 (10) | −8.8 (16.2) | −2.2 (28.0) | 3.6 (38.5) | 7 (45) | 6 (43) | 2 (36) | −3.8 (25.2) | −6.4 (20.5) | −9.2 (15.4) | −3.9 (25.1) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −38.8 (−37.8) | −43.7 (−46.7) | −46.3 (−51.3) | −39.1 (−38.4) | −21.7 (−7.1) | −8.4 (16.9) | −0.7 (30.7) | −3.9 (25.0) | −12.6 (9.3) | −20.8 (−5.4) | −33.2 (−27.8) | −35.6 (−32.1) | −46.3 (−51.3) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 21 (0.8) | 17 (0.7) | 16 (0.6) | 9 (0.4) | 8 (0.3) | 8 (0.3) | 20 (0.8) | 23 (0.9) | 26 (1.0) | 18 (0.7) | 22 (0.9) | 24 (0.9) | 212 (8.3) |
| Source: Norwegian Meteorological Institute | |||||||||||||
| Climate data for Longyearbyen (1961–1990) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 9.7 (49.5) | 7.0 (44.6) | 6.3 (43.3) | 7.5 (45.5) | 10.6 (51.1) | 15.7 (60.3) | 21.7 (71.1) | 18.1 (64.6) | 15.2 (59.4) | 8.9 (48.0) | 7.5 (45.5) | 8.7 (47.7) | 21.7 (71.1) |
| Average high °C (°F) | −13.0 (8.6) | −13.0 (8.6) | −13.0 (8.6) | −9.0 (15.8) | −3.0 (26.6) | 3.0 (37.4) | 7.0 (44.6) | 6.0 (42.8) | 1.0 (33.8) | −4.0 (24.8) | −8.0 (17.6) | −11.0 (12.2) | −4.7 (23.5) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −16.5 (2.3) | −17.0 (1.4) | −16.5 (2.3) | −12.5 (9.5) | −5.0 (23.0) | 1.0 (33.8) | 5.0 (41.0) | 4.0 (39.2) | −1.0 (30.2) | −6.5 (20.3) | −11.0 (12.2) | −14.5 (5.9) | −7.5 (18.4) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −20.0 (−4.0) | −21.0 (−5.8) | −20.0 (−4.0) | −16.0 (3.2) | −7.0 (19.4) | −1.0 (30.2) | 3.0 (37.4) | 2.0 (35.6) | −3.0 (26.6) | −9.0 (15.8) | −14.0 (6.8) | −18.0 (−0.4) | −10.3 (13.4) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −38.8 (−37.8) | −43.7 (−46.7) | −46.3 (−51.3) | −39.1 (−38.4) | −21.7 (−7.1) | −8.4 (16.9) | 0.2 (32.4) | −3.9 (25.0) | −12.6 (9.3) | −20.8 (−5.4) | −33.2 (−27.8) | −35.6 (−32.1) | −46.3 (−51.3) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 22.0 (0.87) | 28.0 (1.10) | 29.0 (1.14) | 16.0 (0.63) | 13.0 (0.51) | 18.0 (0.71) | 24.0 (0.94) | 30.0 (1.18) | 25.0 (0.98) | 19.0 (0.75) | 22.0 (0.87) | 25.0 (0.98) | 271 (10.66) |
| Average rainy days (≥ 1 mm) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 13 | 17 | 18 | 14 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 86 |
| Average snowy days (≥ 1 cm) | 21 | 17 | 19 | 17 | 16 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 21 | 22 | 22 | 176 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 0.0 | 0.0 | 77.5 | 228.0 | 254.2 | 165.0 | 155.0 | 133.3 | 75.0 | 12.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1,102 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 0.0 | 0.0 | 22.1 | 36.4 | 34.2 | 22.9 | 20.8 | 18.7 | 17.4 | 6.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 25 |
| Average ultraviolet index | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.75 |
| Source 1: nordicvisitor.com | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: UNIS (extremes only) (sun only) and Weather Atlas (UV index) | |||||||||||||
References
This article uses material from the Wikipedia Simple English article Longyearbyen, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki Simple English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.