“TOSsicurate that the reindeers have a lot of water and don’t forget to drink a glass every hour ». Santa Claus reminds him of a team of elves. Necessary recommendation, while Lapponia suffocates in a wave of hot record. This summer northern Finland has seen temperatures around 30 ° C for whole days. Nothing similar in history had ever happened since the surveys began, in 1961, as BBC tells.
Hot record in Finland, reindeer at risk
While Santa Claus is adapting with cheerful resilience (“I go to swim in the lake in the forest only after 18:00, when the weather begins to refresh himself”, he says), in the tourist destination in the city of Rovaniemi the problem is serious.
After an unusually cold and rainy spring and rainfall, the whole of Finland, including the extreme north of Lapland, 500 km (310 miles) above the Arctic circlewas suddenly overwhelmed by a continuous wave of heat. The meteorologist of the Finnish Meteorological Institute Jaakko Savela explains the rarity of heat waves such as the current one. «The last time that the Finnish Lapland had such a long heat wave was in 1972. In that case it lasted only 12-14 days, depending on the location. That record was beaten ».
Lapponia temperatures over 30 degrees
It is not only Rovaniemi who has been hit by torrid temperatures. Several other weather stations throughout Lapland have recorded the longer -recorded heat waves ever recorded. The highest temperature of the heat wave, 31.7 ° C, was measured in two locations, Ylitornio and Sodankylä. It is about 10 ° C more than the seasonal average of Lapland.
The heat wave raised renewed concern about the acceleration of climate change in the Arcticwhich is heating from four to five times faster than the rest of the earth.
The reindeer of Lapland also suffer the heat
The effects of this phenomenon also affect the famous reindeer of Lapland. Even if there are no “mass deaths”, experts describe a dramatic situation that is affecting one of the symbols of the Arctic ecosystem.
Celebrated as the towers of Santa Claus’s sled at Christmas, they wander freely for forests and hills, increasingly fatigued by the heat. As he explains to Anne Ollila, director of the Country Renne Pastors Association, at CTV News. “Reindeers are perredly adapted to icy climates, while they are unable to regulate their body temperature in case of strong heat. So they overheat and escape from predators becomes exhausting ». In addition, hunted by mosquitoes – who thrive in the heat – they flee towards roads and villages looking for relief. For them, the only option would be to reach higher and more sudden altitudes. In the Finnish Lapland, the highest share is only about 1,000 m.
In the future in the Arctic reindeers of reindeer could have to build great barns to provide shade to their animals.
I am not just Santa Claus and his reindeer to be in difficulty, but also tourism. Lapland is traditionally known as a “cool” tourist destination, but this year it is much less.