Why is the Kebnekaise shrinking every year and no longer the highest mountain in Sweden?

The only remaining glacier atop a mountain in Sweden, which until 2019 was also its highest peak, it lost another two meters in height last year due to rising air temperatures caused by climate change, says Stockholm University.

In 2018, the southern summit of the Kebnekaise massif was demoted to second place in the Swedish mountain classification after a third of its glacier melted. The northern peak of Kebnekaise, where there is no glacier, is today the highest in the Nordic country.

“On August 14, researchers at the Tarfala Research Station measured the southern summit of Kebnekaise at 2,094.6 meters (6,912 feet) above sea level. This is the lowest height that has been measured since the start of measurements in the 1940s. “ the university said in a statement Tuesday.

“The decrease of the peak and the change of aspect of the drift are mainly explained due to the increase in air temperature, but also due to the changing wind conditions, which affect where snow accumulates in winter “added.

Records show that the height varies from two to three meters between summer and winter. Typically, the peak reaches its highest point in May and its lowest in September.

According to university researchers, the changes reflect a long-standing warming of the Swedish climate and, citing the recent report by the UN climate panel, they claimed that global warming had caused an unprecedented melting of glaciers and was on the verge of spiraling out of control.

The southern peak of Kebnekaise measured up to 2,118 meters in the mid-1990s. It has been measured since 1880 and over the past 20 years it has lost one meter per year due to melting, but last year it lost two due to rising global temperatures.

The Kebnekaise massif is on 150 km (90 miles) north of the Arctic Circle in the Scandinavian mountain range which stretches across much of northern Norway and Sweden and is part of the Lapland World Heritage Site.

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