State meteorologists were predicting record-high tides all along the Norwegian coast on Monday. Residents were being advised to secure boats, remove outdoor items that could float away and brace for flooding in cellars and basements.
The high tides follow extremely stormy weather over the weekend that disrupted road, ferry and airline traffic and caused quite a bit of damage. Now the extreme weather dubbed Elsa is giving way to tidal variations expected to be anything but normal and reaching their peak late Monday night.
“We will reach water levels along the West Coast south of Stad that we seldom have seen,” state meteorologist Geir Ottar Fagerli told newspaper Aftenposten. Bergen and Stavanger were especially vulnerable, while residents of Kristiansand were working hard to secure their boats as well.
Sea levels are due to rise by as much as a meter above tidal tables in Vestlandet and Møre og Romsdal, both along the outer coast and within the fjords. Stavanger may see as much as a two-meter rise while Måløy in Vestland County was told to brace for nearly three meters, breaking the record of 282 centimeters over normal in January 1993.
The extremely high tides are blamed on the full moon combined with high astronomical water levels and a severe low-pressure system. Warning levels were orange from the Swedish border to Agder, in Trøndelag and along the coast of Northern Norway as well.
newsinenglish.no staff
