Hopeful world champs arrive in Oslo

Holmenkollen’s arenas and the hills above Oslo are coming alive once again with the sound of skiers, snowboarders and cheering fans, as the first of two major international competitions gets underway. First out is the IBU World Cup Biathlon, to be followed by the World Snowboarding Championships next week at nearby Oslo Winterpark at Tryvann. [...]

Northern Lights put on a show

UPDATED: Meteorologists and space experts forecast an especially spectacular appearance of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) on Tuesday, linked to what they call the “strongest solar storm” in more than six years. The Northern Lights could be seen over most of the country where the weather was clear, and are likely to reappear throughout this [...]

Cold front moves in, storm coming

Temperatures are expected to dip way down below the freezing point this week, all over the country, with extremely cold temperatures already recorded in eastern and central Norway. Even the Oslo area was told to brace for around minus-20C, with a new storm due later in the week. Residents of Tynset, in eastern Norway not [...]

Holiday forecast: Mild, wet, slippery

Norwegians could look forward to a White Christmas and New Year at higher elevations, but holiday forecasts called for mild temperatures with rain and sleet along much of the coast. Motorists were also being warned of extremely slippery roads, especially in the valleys of southern Norway. “The warnings apply to Østerdalen, Gudbrandsdalen, Telemark and some [...]

More storms coming

Norway’s spate of stormy weather looked set to continue this week, after another weekend of hurricane-force winds along the southwest coast. The counties of Agder and Rogaland have been hardest hit. “We had another major storm in this area during the night heading into Sunday, and from Tuesday it will stir up again,” Ingrid Bentsen [...]

First snow finally falls down south

Oslo-area residents were among those who woke up to winter on Wednesday, after snow started falling Tuesday evening and stuck around through much of the day. It wasn’t much, only a few centimeters of wet snow that turned to ice, but its sheer whiteness can brighten up otherwise deep and dark December days. Much more [...]

Snow finally arrives – and lots of it

Residents of Stryn, in the mountains of Sogn og Fjordane, woke up to 50 centimeters of heavy, wet snow on Monday. Snow also fell at high elevations in southern Norway and many places around the west, with reports of the long-awaited white stuff coming in from Stavanger as well. The Oslo area remained mostly bare [...]

Next stop: Trafalgar Square

The large Christmas Tree that will light up London’s Trafalgar Square was chopped down in a forest on the eastern side of Oslo on Friday. From there it began its journey across the North Sea, a gift from the people of Oslo to the British capital. It’s the 65th year in a row that the [...]

Sun sets for the winter up north

The sun was set to dip below the horizon on Sunday in Norway’s far north, and not rise again until January 21. The season known as mørketiden (the dark time) is settling in, but it can actually offer some spectacular light as well. On some days, the sky can be ablaze with what looks like [...]

Six ski resorts decide to open

An ongoing lack of snow continues to frustrate ski resort operators all over Norway. Even with snow-making equipment running at full speed, only six resorts appeared able to open this weekend, compared to 39 at this time last year. The season’s first World Cup event in Norway was moving forward, though, at a new location. [...]

Experts predict a mild winter ahead

Climate researchers and state meteorologists are forecasting a much milder winter than the past two in Norway, while ski resort operators have been forced to postpone the opening of the ski season once again because of lack of snow. Meanwhile, political efforts to reverse climate change seem to have melted along with the ice. Only [...]

Icicles led to injury and prison

An Oslo court sent a powerful message to property owners on Thursday: Remove snow and icicles hanging off rooftops in winter, or risk going to jail. Both the owner and manager of an apartment building in Oslo’s fashionable Frogner district were sentenced to prison and fined heavily after failing to do so, and after a [...]

Avalanche fears force evacuations

Dozens of families were evacuated in the northern county of Troms over the weekend, after more bad weather raised fears of more avalanches in the area. Most had to be taken from their homes on snowmobiles, because roads were blocked. Around 40 persons went along with local officials’ warnings that they should leave their homes [...]

Even more tragedy in the mountains

Norway’s number of fatalities linked to bad weather conditions rose again over the weekend, when a woman from Bærum, west of Oslo, became the eighth victim of a snow- and rockslide this winter, this time in the mountainous county of Telemark. The woman had been located and dug out of the slide at Rauland on [...]

A guide to skiing around Oslo

With thousands of kilometers of prepared ski trails around the Norwegian capital, skiing is a popular winter activity among Oslo-area residents. Views and News offers some tips for getting out there and joining the locals, far from the maddening crowd. The city’s ski season hit high gear when the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships (Ski-VM) [...]

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