After an abnormally warm summer, ripe cloudberries are recorded in Svalbard for the first time.

Cloudberry grows in swamps, boreal forests and along the coasts of northern Scandinavia, Northwest Russia and throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

The ripe cloudberries were discovered in the Coal Bay Valley, halfway between Longyearbyen and Barentsburg. There were some 20-30 berries, red-orange in colour and fairly big.

Scientists concluded that the berries appeared in the Arctic archipelago due to the abnormally warm summer. Over the last 50 years, temperatures in Svalbard have increased by 3-5° Celsius. July 2023 became the warmest ever in Svalbard, with an average temperature above 10° Celsius.

This is the first time ripe cloudberries are seen in Svalbard. Previously, only the flowers have been observed.

Source: The Barents Observer

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