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Friday, March 29, 2024

June set new records for rain

The summer month of June seemed anything but summery because of all its rain, and now state meteorologists can confirm what most Norwegians were thinking: June was a real wash-out, in most of the country.

The state meteorologic institute reported over the weekend that June 2011 was the second-wettest month in Norway since 1900. With 70 percent more precipitation than normal on a national basis, last month is going into the record books after only being beaten by June 1964. That’s when precipitation was around 75 percent above normal.

The heavy, often torrential, rains last month set off major flooding in much of southern and eastern Norway. Precipitation in eastern Norway, known as Østlandet, made June the wettest since 1900, not just second-wettest.

News bureau NTB reported that in western Norway, known as Vestlandet, rainfall was double what’s considered normal but June 2011 ended up as only the fourth-wettest month since 1900.

Some weather stations in the counties of Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane and Finnmark registered rainfall as much as four times normal. The most rain in the course of just one day fell in Sirdal.

Other areas, though, had better weather than usual with lots of sunshine and clear skies. The northern counties of Troms and Finnmark had as much as 76 percent less precipitation than normal, great luck for the Hurtigruten voyage that was covered live on Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) for every minute of its nearly six-day journey from Bergen north to Kirkenes. The weather was generally gorgeous throughout the voyage, making for nice TV pictures and brilliant, if perhaps slightly misleading, promotion for Hurtigruten and Norwegian tourism.

Views and News from Norway/Nina Berglund
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