Temperatures reached a high of 11.2 degrees Celsius in Kilpisjärvi on Friday, compared to a high of -1.7 degrees on the same day last year.

Nearly 190 reindeer perished after falling through thin ice in Finnmark, revealing a lack of proper rescue equipment and the need for better emergency preparedness in reindeer herding communities.

Unusually heavy rains in Lapland have caused water levels to rise near flood levels, and further rises will depend on temperatures over the next few days, with climate change being a contributing factor.

Temperatures surpassed 30 degrees Celsius across northern Scandinavia on Wednesday and many meteorological stations hit new record high temperatures for June. The thermometer in Saltdal, northern Norway, reached 31.6 degrees C. Further inside the Arctic Circle, at 69 degrees north in Skibotn east of Tromsø, the temperature was 31.7 degrees (89 F).

Changing weather with a lot of snow, rain and strong frost with icing, has made it difficult for the reindeer to reach lichen and moss on the ground in Nordland.

Scientists measured 16 centimeters of snow in Kilpisjärvi on Thursday, which is far less than the average depth of 39 centimeters for this time of year, according to Siiskonen. Less of the white stuff than usual, creating unusual opportunities for long-distance skating enthusiasts.

The reindeer owners feel they had to choose. Pay expensive fines or move with the reindeer across the river even if the ice was too thin. On Saturday, a thousand reindeer went through the ice in Vuorašjávri, a mile east of Kautokeino municipality in Finnmark.

Odd Arne Hætta thought his dog Leo had found an elk, but it turned out to be something else entirely. Badgers are not common so far north but, sporadic cases have been observed in the past, including in Skibotn in Troms.

Tuomas Siilasjoki and Minna Näkkäläjärvi say they were taken by surprise when a mobile drill rig one day appeared in the horizon. Nobody had asked them about exploring for minerals inside their siida, a reindeer foraging area, in northern Finland.

Some try to be creative to avoid reindeer driveways. But this is not something the Norwegian Public Roads Administration wants.

In Karasjok and Kautokeino, there has been greater snowfall than usual on winter pastures. The difficulty in digging down to pasture is effecting reindeer in large parts of Troms and Finnmark.

It is so much snow, more than usual this time of the year.

You wouldn't think it was early January.

Nils Thomas discovered "sinkhole" in the middle of Finnmarksvidda. Scientists have long warned against this, and now it happened.

In just seven years, as much as one-third of the mountain-birch forest in the North Calotte region was severely defoliated by two moth species. Researchers now have a better understanding of what happened.