Climate crisis: changing weather means a race to save Sweden’s reindeer

ground is still warm,’’ says Tomas Svonni, the district’s chairman. ‘‘When you get snow on warm ground, you get ice at the bottom, and the food which the reindeer eat becomes frozen.’’

Inside the cabin, there’s a fug of sweat, wet clothes and boiled reindeer meat. Parked outside are the snowmobiles, dayglo lassos hanging from the handlebars, on which the men have spent four days ranging over the slopes in search of their animals.

Christer Johansson is busy sawing and screwing planks in darkness, even though it’s only early afternoon. He is racing to finish the wooden pens where the deer will be separated by owner. ‘‘There’s a little bit of a panic to get the reindeer down,’’ he says. ‘‘They can’t find any food up on the mountain, so they have to come down to the forest.’’

This Arctic corner of Sweden is seeing some of the most dramatic changes to weather patterns on earth.

According to the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, temperatures here were on average more than 3C higher between 1991 and 2017 than between 1961 and 1990.

That is more than six times the 0.5C increase estimated for the world as a whole.

‘‘The biggest thing is the temperature differences: it can be pretty warm one day and -30C the next day,’’ Svonni explains.

‘‘We haven’t seen this before. This is new for us.’’

Warmer air in the Arctic makes the weather more changeable. This can push cold Arctic air down over northern Sweden, bringing short cold spells, as well as unusual midwinter warmth.

– Telegraph Group