Arctic's Extreme Weather Causes Problems for Reindeer

Extreme weather plaguing the Arctic town of Longyearbyen is causing problems for the region's reindeer, as well as its people, according to new a new study.

Located on the island archipelago of Svalbard, the town's temperatures were ridiculously warm back in January 2012. They reached a maximum of nearly +8 degrees Celsius in one location at a time when mean temperatures are normally -15 degrees Celsius. Not to mention it rained in record amounts - nearly 100 millimeters of rain fell in just one day.

For reindeer, the situation was particularly problematic out on the Arctic tundra. Rain falling on snow pooled at the soil surface and subsequently froze, making it difficult for these animals to graze for food.

According to study co-author Ketil Isaksen, a climatologist from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, such wild weather is extremely rare. There is a mere 0.2 percent probability that in any given it will happen, meaning these events have a 500-year return period.

Svalbard has seen the greatest increase in temperatures of any place in Europe over the last three decades. And though scientists can't directly blame global warming on this phenomenon, virtually all climate studies show that the High Arctic, including Svalbard, will become increasingly warmer and wetter over time.

"We expect this to be more likely to happen," Isaksen said in a statement.

Other wildlife that spend winters on the Arctic archipelago like the Svalbard rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta hyperborea), the sibling vole (Microtus levis), and the Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) are undoubtedly affected by these extreme weather events, but researchers focused on the wild Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus).

Comparing summer population counts of these reindeer both before and after the January 2012 event, the researchers found that the extreme weather caused one of the highest incidents of deer deaths on record.

However, researchers consider the animals lucky.

"It wasn't like there were dead reindeer all over the tundra," said first author Brage Bremset Hansen. "If this had happened in the colder 1980s, it could have been much worse. ...They had a nice winter up to this event, which occurred rather late."

With temperatures still on the rise, wacky weather is likely in this Arctic area's future, and will create some tough obstacles that reindeer and other wildlife will have to overcome.

The findings were published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.