After several weeks of double-digit degrees below freezing, temperatures in Oslo rose on Monday to a relatively balmy minus-4C. More mild weather was in the forecast, after a bitterly cold Christmas weekend over most of Norway.
The eastern township of Tynset, south of Røros, set a new, dubious record on Christmas Day when thermometers plunged to minus-40.4C. It’s often extremely cold in that area, at the northern end of the valley known as Østerdalen, but never quite that cold.
In Oslo, temperatures hovered around the minus-15 mark and it was bitterly cold again in southern and central Norway and up north as well. On Sunday, though, thermometers started rising a bit and now state meteorologists say more relief is in site.
Tuesday was due to be cold again, but late Wednesday and Thursday temperatures on the west coast may creep up towards the freezing point and maybe even over to the plus-side, with some rain, sleet or snow. The Oslo area was told to expect cloudy weather and perhaps snow flurries with temperatures around minus-7, possibly even warmer over the New Year’s weekend.
Meanwhile, meteorologists were expecting new records for December, possibly as the coldest December on record since their weather station opened at Blindern in 1939. As of Monday, the average temperature so far in December was minus 9.6C, reported newspaper Aftenposten, compared to a “normal” average of minus 3.1C.
Bente Wahl of the state Meteorological Institute told Aftenposten that most areas of southeastern Norway were running between five and 10 degrees colder than normal.
Views and News from Norway/Nina Berglund
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