More winter weather chaos disrupted airline traffic in Western Norway on Tuesday, as meteorologists warned of a major cold snap setting in all over the country later this week. Temperatures are likely to sink down to minus-16C in Oslo, and minus-20C in the far north.
Bergen’s Flesland Airport was forced to close Tuesday morning after loads of heavy snow had fallen for several others. “The problem is to get the huge amounts of snow off the runways,” airport operations leader Øystein Skaar told state broadcaster NRK. “We’ve had crews working through the night.” Flights started taking off again by mid-morning, but delays were expected throughout the day.
State highway crews in Hordaland, Rogaland and Sogn og Fjordane, meanwhile, warned of extremely slippery roads. An Arctic low-pressure system had already been causing problems, also farther to the north, all week.
After warming up a bit on Wednesday, forecasts called for gradually colder weather all week, and “unusually” cold temperatures during the weekend. State meteorologist Håvard Thorset predicted that “it will really freeze” on Friday, with temperatures down to around minus-16C in the Oslo area by Monday. Thermometers were expected to fall to around minus-15C in most of southeastern Norway.
newsinenglish.no staff
