Scientists found that over past 60 years on the coast of the Arctic seas winter ends about five to ten days earlier, press service of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (the Russian Academy of Sciences) told TASS.
The institute's experts have studied snow cover at 620 Arctic weather stations.
"Despite almost equal average values of changes in the date of winters' end and beginning, the season duration in the Russian Arctic varies unevenly," the press service said. "Scientists have found that winters end about five to ten days earlier in the Arctic seas coastal areas. At the same time, winters in the Russian Arctic's European part begin three to ten days later compared to the eastern part, with the exception for the Chukotka Autonomous Region."
The Arctic is a unique area for research, since climate change there is developing faster than elsewhere on the planet, scientists say. In the recent study to assess global climate change, scientists analyzed shifting of climatic seasons boundaries over the years. Seasons are determined by the average daily air temperature, and snow cover's formation and thawing indicate climate change.
The scientists have analyzed daily average temperatures and snow cover data at 620 weather stations between 1958 and 2023 to make schematic maps with interpolation surfaces, showing changes in Russian Arctic winters' boundaries and duration in comparison with the periods 1991-2020 and 1961-1990.
