Spring Weather at Bjornoya Svalbard & Jan Mayen

Daily high temperatures increase by 10°F, from 27°F to 36°F, rarely falling below 12°F or exceeding 42°F.

Daily low temperatures increase by 13°F, from 19°F to 32°F, rarely falling below 1°F or exceeding 37°F.

For reference, on August 1, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at Bjornoya typically range from 40°F to 45°F, while on February 7, the coldest day of the year, they range from 18°F to 26°F.

The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average spring temperatures. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day.

King Cove, United States (3,487 miles away); Diamond Ridge, United States (3,158 miles); and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia (3,432 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to Bjornoya (view comparison).

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The spring at Bjornoya experiences very rapidly decreasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy decreasing from 88% to 70%.

The clearest day of the spring is May 27, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 30% of the time.

For reference, on January 21, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 91%, while on May 27, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 30%.

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At Bjornoya, the chance of a wet day over the course of the spring is very rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 24% and ending it at 11%.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 27% on January 17, and its lowest chance is 10% on June 4.

Over the course of the spring at Bjornoya, the chance of a day with only rain increases from 6% to 8%, the chance of a day with mixed snow and rain decreases from 5% to 1%, and the chance of a day with only snow decreases from 14% to 1%.

Rainfall

To show variation within the season and not just the monthly totals, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day rainfall during the spring at Bjornoya is essentially constant, remaining about 0.4 inches throughout, and rarely exceeding 1.1 inches.

Snowfall

As with rainfall, we consider the snowfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day snowfall during the spring at Bjornoya is very rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 7.6 inches, when it rarely exceeds 15.3 inches or falls below 1.6 inches, and ending the season at 1.1 inches, when it rarely exceeds 3.6 inches or falls below -0.0 inches.

Due to its extreme latitude, Bjornoya experiences polar day (also known as the midnight Sun) during the summer and polar night during the winter. These are periods of time in which the sun is continuously above or below the horizon for more than one day. The precise start and end dates of polar day and night vary from year to year and depend on the precise location and elevation of the observer, and the local topography.

In the summer at Bjornoya during 2024, the Sun is continuously above the horizon for 3.5 months, rising at 1:08 AM on April 29, and not setting again until 12:31 AM on August 13. As such, polar day begins in the spring and lasts beyond the end of the season.

The shortest day of the spring is March 1, with 8 hours, 47 minutes of daylight.

The latest sunrise of the spring at Bjornoya is 7:33 AM on March 1 and the earliest sunrise is 6 hours, 25 minutes earlier at 1:08 AM on April 29.

The earliest sunset is 4:20 PM on March 1 and the latest sunset is 7 hours, 52 minutes later at 12:12 AM on April 28.

Daylight saving time (DST) ends at 3:00 AM on March 31, 2024, shifting sunrise and sunset to be an hour earlier.

The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation.

The figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for the spring of 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon.

We base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night.

The chance that a given day will be muggy at Bjornoya is essentially constant during the spring, remaining around 0% throughout.

This section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages.

The average hourly wind speed at Bjornoya is very rapidly decreasing during the spring, decreasing from 20.0 miles per hour to 12.7 miles per hour over the course of the season.

For reference, on January 23, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 21.0 miles per hour, while on July 26, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 11.7 miles per hour.

The hourly average wind direction at Bjornoya throughout the spring is predominantly from the east, with a peak proportion of 37% on April 3.

Bjornoya is located near a large body of water (e.g., ocean, sea, or large lake). This section reports on the wide-area average surface temperature of that water.

The average surface water temperature at Bjornoya is essentially constant during the spring, remaining within 1°F of 36°F throughout.

Definitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere).

The growing season at Bjornoya typically lasts for 3.0 months (91 days), from around June 21 to around September 20, rarely starting before May 31 or after July 13, and rarely ending before August 28 or after October 10.

The spring at Bjornoya is more likely than not fully outside of the growing season, with the chance that a given day is in the growing season increasing from 0% to 10% over the course of the season.

Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F.

The average accumulated growing degree days at Bjornoya are essentially constant during the spring, remaining around 0°F throughout.

This section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation.

The average daily incident shortwave solar energy at Bjornoya is very rapidly increasing during the spring, rising by 4.4 kWh, from 0.3 kWh to 4.7 kWh, over the course of the season.

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Bjornoya are 74.517 deg latitude, 19.017 deg longitude, and 0 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of Bjornoya contains only modest variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 161 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 22 feet. Within 10 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (1,673 feet). Within 50 miles also contains very significant variations in elevation (1,706 feet).

The area within 2 miles of Bjornoya is covered by water (59%), sparse vegetation (29%), and snow and glaciers (11%), within 10 miles by water (78%) and sparse vegetation (17%), and within 50 miles by water (99%).