Sweden’s sole remaining mountaintop shrinks two metres in year due to climate change

Once the highest peak in the country, Kebnekaise has dipped to its lowest height due to rising temperatures

Kebnekaise mountain has shrunk to its lowest height due to climate change. Wikimedia Commons

Climate change has caused Sweden’s only remaining mountain peak to shrink two metres in the space of a year.

Researchers from Stockholm University reported that the Kebnekaise south peak in Swedish Lapland dropped to a height of 2,094.6 metres in 2021, caused by melting ice due to rising global temperatures.

Having been the country’s highest peak for more than 100 years, in 2010, the mountain measured 2,102 metres tall. It lost its title as the highest in the country in 2019 as melting snow and ice caused it to shrink, and has now shrunk further still.

"On August 14, the southern peak of Kebnekaise was measured at 2,094.6 metres (6,912 feet) above sea level by researchers from Tarfala research station,” said the university.

“This is the lowest height that has been measured since the measurements started in the 1940s."

Located about 150 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, the Kebnekaise massif is part of the Laponia World Heritage Site and the Scandes mountain range, which stretches over large parts of northern Norway and Sweden.

"The decrease in the peak and the changed appearance of the drift can mainly be explained by rising air temperatures but also changing wind conditions, which affect where the snow accumulates in the winter," the university said.

Kebnekaise's north peak, where there is no glacier, is now the highest in the Nordic country.

Researchers had previously hoped that the southern peak of the mountain might accumulate snow and ice during winter to help it retain its height for longer, but hotter summers have prevented this.

In 2018, Sweden experienced its hottest ever summer. Hastveda in southern Sweden claimed the record for the hottest day when temperatures hit 34.6°C on July 26, according to the national weather agency.

And in June 2021, several parts of Sweden reported record highs as Nordic countries experienced a heatwave and Finland’s northernmost Arctic Lapland region recorded its hottest temperature for more than a century.