It has snowed worse before. Here are the Norwegian snow records
In recent times, we have received weather warnings from meteorologists. But do we fully understand them?
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Certain parts of Norway have experienced heavy snowfall and chaotic conditions this past week.
Kristiansand was at an orange level: very heavy snowfall. The same applied to Oslo, which set a record with 30 centimetres of snow in 24 hours. In Drangedal, there was 60 centimetres of snow, reports yr.no, a Norwegian website for weather forecasting. People were unable to travel by car or bus.
But it has been much worse before.
Chaotic conditions, reported newspaper Fædrelandsvennen in Kristiansand on March 1, 1954. It had been snowing for 23 days.
The snow depth reached 1.65 metres. Only three streets were clear. People arriving at the train station were paid to shovel snow. The snowplow had knocked out the power line, leaving Grimstad without electricity.
This is worse than the snow winter of 1877, a snowed-in 90-year-old told the newspaper.
The record for snowfall in one day
The Norwegian record for snowfall belongs to Krutå mountain lodge in Hattfjelldal, Northern Norway. On a day in March 1953, 100 centimetres of snow came in one day, according to Norwegian News Agency NTB.
Weather forecasting has greatly improved since the mountain lodge was buried in snow 70 years ago.
The change occurred after a hurricane in Western Norway and Trøndelag in 1992. It is the most powerful storm that has ever hit Norway (link in Norwegian).
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The hurricane was forecast in the weather report on the New Year's Eve edition of Dagsrevyen, the daily evening news programme for the television channel NRK1. However, the warning was not picked up well enough by the authorities and media, state meteorologist Gunnar Noer writes in the latest issue of the journal Naturen.
No preparations were made, and there was significant damage to forests, buildings, and boats.
Warnings in three colours
The 1992 hurricane led to new warnings for extreme weather, according to Noer. He works at the Weather Forecasting Service in Northern Norway.
Today, weather warnings come in three colours.
Yellow indicates moderate danger and means that the weather will be challenging. People need to be alert. Orange warns of great danger. People need to be prepared. Red warnings are the most serious. They indicate extreme danger and extreme weather that can threaten lives and property. People need to take measures to protect themselves.
This year, 60 per cent more snow has fallen in Northern Norway than usual, the newspaper Nordlys reported on May 10, 1997. People of Tromsø held the Norwegian Championship in snow shovelling. The prize was a trip to Southern Norway.
The depth of snow in Tromsø was 240 centimetres on April 29, 1997. This is not a record.
Record snow depth
In 1918, conditions were much worse on the mountain near Ulvik in Western Norway. The snow depth was measured at 585 centimetres, which is the Norwegian record.
But that was on the mountain. The impact is greater when it snows in cities and towns.
This is why the criteria for what meteorologists define as extreme weather are not the same, according to Gunnar Noer.
They measure the strength of the wind and the amount of snow, but whether the values are extreme depends on where it happens in the country and the time of year.
In Western Norway, it rains a lot, so thethreshold for what is considered extreme weather is higher. There must be more than 150 millimetres of rain in a day before meteorologists issue an extreme rainfall warning. In the inland of Southern Norway, 80 millimetres is enough. In Finnmark, far up north, the threshold is only 60 millimetres, writes Noer.
In April 1951, more than 3 metres of snow was measured at Tryvann. This is a record for Oslo. Even in the city centre, the snowbanks were high.
'A line of swaying hats and caps could barely be seen above the man-high snowbanks, while new snowflakes drifted down,' Nordstrands Blad wrote on April 7, 1951.
City record for longest winter
It's not only snowfall and snow depth that are measured, but also how long the snow stays.
In 1940, Norway was at war. And Tromsø had a long winter.
The snow arrived on October 2, 1940, and did not disappear until 231 days later, on June 12, 1941.
Oslo's longest winter lasted 158 days, from November 12, 1979, to April 17, 1980.
Bergen's longest winter was from December 19, 2009, to March 19, 2010. A total of 91 days.
'It's so wonderful that we should have had the Olympics in Bergen,' a woman told Bergens Tidende on March 2, 2010. 'Still, it's exhausting with so much snow and such high snowbanks in the city centre. The snow could have stayed on the mountains.'
Don't understand the warnings
Warnings about snow, flooding, and avalanches are not always easy to understand, according to a recent study from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.
Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 13 individuals from different backgrounds about dangerous weather and warnings.
The participants in the study understood the colour codes but did not know what actions to take when the warnings came. Additionally, they had varying and highly personal perceptions of what constitutes dangerous weather. Some of them came from other countries and interpreted Norwegian weather based on their experiences with storms back home. An American student, for example, was used to tornado warnings and did not take the modest Norwegian alerts seriously.
People who have lived in the same place for a long time are familiar with the local conditions. They know what happens when the weather turns bad. And where it happens.
However, for people who move to a new place or are on vacation, it's not as easy to make safe choices, the researchers write in the study.
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Translated by Alette Bjordal Gjellesvik
Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no
References:
Noer, G. Om farevarsler og ekstremvær i Norge (On warnings and extreme weather in Norway), Naturen, 2024. DOI: 10.18261/naturen.148.5-6.3
Sivle et al. Hva tenker innbyggerne om farlig vær og farevarsler? (What do residents think about dangerous weather and warnings?), Naturen, 2024. DOI: 10.18261/naturen.148.5-6.2
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