Wide areas of Finnmark in Northern Norway have been hit by thunder and lightning in recent days that struck, among other things, the data center for Vadsø township, a house in Tana, a man in Alta and a transformer station in Landersfjord, which set off a fire. Emergency crews closed the nearby county road FV98 for fear of explosion.
The man was out picking berries on Sunday when he was struck by lightning. He survived and was recovering Tuesday at the hospital in Hammerfest.
Emergency crews got really busy on Monday after an estimated 2,200 lightning bolts hit Finnmark during the course of the day. Initial reports of a fire in the Vadsø data center were later withdrawn but the lightning led to smoke and power failures all around the Varanger and Porsanger areas.
“There were powerful thunderstorms in eastern Finnmark, out on the vidda (plateau) earlier but later in Tana and around Varanger,” state meteorologist Jon Austerheim told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). He linked the storms to warm air from the southwest.
Residents of western Finnmark and Troms also had lightning and thunder, and meteorologists predicted more thunderstorms and cloudbursts farther south as well.
newsinenglish.no staff
