Norwegian meteorologists posted what they called “extreme storm warnings” on Saturday, especially for the country’s western and southern coasts, as a powerful weather system dubbed “Lena” moved in over the North Sea. The storm was expected to bring more torrential rain and winds up to hurricane force.
The storm was brewing Saturday afternoon and expected to hit with full force during the night and into Sunday. More storms, churned up by the remains of the tropical hurricane “Bertha,” were also predicted to ram Norway’s southern coast from Monday.
Batten down the hatches
Meteorologists were urging anyone out on boats in the still-unusually warm summer weather to return to land and tie them up as securely as possible. They also also warned residents to secure all outdoor furniture, other loose items and, not least, children’s trampolines. Otherwise, they warned, the strong winds can send them flying.
Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported Saturday that the meteorologists decided to upgrade earlier storm warnings to “extreme warnings.” The reason was that the weather system heading for southern Norway is considered highly unusual for a summer day in August.
“It looks like the bad weather has become much worse than we thought, and that it will come closer to land than it looked like earlier,” Tone Kristin Taule, a meteorologist on duty at the weather service Vervarslinga på Vestlandet, told NRK.
‘Extremely turbulent’ along the coast
Winds from the southeast were rising Saturday afternoon and were predicted to rise much more during the night. “We’re predicting extremely turbulent weather along the coast,” Taule said, especially in the counties of Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane. The coast of Rogaland, already hit by torrential rain earlier this past week, would also be pounded but the winds were expected to ease during the night.
More extreme weather was expected from Monday, also up through the Oslo Fjord and extending into inland areas, when the tropical hurricane “Bertha” is due to reach Norway. Meteorologists were tracking the hurricane over the Atlantic and predicted heavy rain through Wednesday.
newsinenglish.no/Nina Berglund
