Air temperature data were taken from http://nomad2.ncep.noaa.gov/ and averaged over the western (70-76°N, 15-35°E) and eastern (69-77ºN, 35-55ºE) parts of the sea. During winter and spring, the air temperature was warmer than normal, with maximum positive anomalies (6.0-7.0 °C) in the eastern Barents Sea in February and March. In April-September, the air temperature was generally close to the long-term means, with prevalence of small negative anomalies (<0.5 °C).
In October-November, over most of the sea, the air temperature was, on average, 0.5-1.0 °C higher than normal; and in December, positive anomalies increased to 3.0-4.0 °C (Figure 4.2.2).
Table 4.2.1 summarizes air temperature anomalies at some meteorological stations at the western and southern Barents Sea during the period from late 2007 through 2008. In winter 2007/2008, air temperature over the region was considerably warmer-than-normal (by 1.5-5.0 °C), with highest anomalies at the Svalbard airport, Kanin Nos (6.2 °C in January 2008) and Murmansk (7.1 °C in December 2007). Large positive anomalies alternated with colder-than-normal temperature at all stations but Vardø in March. During spring and summer temperature anomalies were predominantly negative. In September, colder-than-normal temperature alternated with positive anomalies, which rose again to 2.5-5.1 °C in December. Mean annual air temperature in 2008 was warmer-than-average by 0.2-1.8 °C. Mean annual air temperatures in 2008 were colder than in 2007 by 0.3-0.7 °C at Bear Island, Tromsø, Vardø and Murmansk, while at the southeastern (Kanin Nos) and northwestern (Svalbard airport) stations they were colder than the previous year by 1.0 and 2.1 °C correspondingly.
