Either the snowblower has run hot where you live, or the skis have had to be left dry in the shed. In any case, many will say that it has been an unusual November this year. The meteorologists say it is heading for record heat in many places. In addition, it is both surprisingly wet and surprisingly dry. Nevertheless, it is too early to say whether climate is to blame. Record heat As early as November, the researchers at the Meteorological Institute reported historic heat. At Sunndalsøra in Møre og Romsdal, 18.8 degrees were measured on the night of Friday 11 November. It was the highest temperature measured in Norway so late in November, the meteorologists said at the time. Magnus Ovhed in the Meteorological Institute thought there was a chance of a new heat record in November. – The temperature now is very unusual, said the meteorologist. In addition, there has been a lot of rainfall in many places. In the very south of Southern Norway, in the tiny village of Homborsund, cars and houses have been covered in snow in November. Photo: Pål Tegnander / news But not all places. In the north, it is dry and hot. – Very unlike Ketil Tunheim, researcher at the climate department of the Meteorological Institute, says that in October it rained about twice as much as normal. – It is very different from what November looks like. Then most of the stations in Nordland only get 50 per cent of the rainfall they should have had. And the northerners are not alone in having it dry. – They have been the driest in Møre and Romsdal in November. Some weather stations are likely to receive less than a third of what is normal. Nevertheless, Møre and Romsdal have received their share of rainfall. Although it has been dry in the western mountains, it has been wetter than normal in the eastern mountains. In northern Norway, many people have still not seen a single snowflake. But in the south the situation is quite different. – There is a lot of snow in the south. There it is not the same dry situation. Eastern and Southern Norway have received the most rainfall. – Where has it been the wettest? – Some stations in Vestfold and Telemark have had the biggest deviations. There are some stations that have received almost 200 percent more rainfall than normal. In other words, some stations have shown twice as much precipitation as normal. Others have a third less than normal. But why is this so? At Lødingen in Nordland, the weather has been fine, along with the rest of the county. Photo: Svein Inge Lundli A blocking high pressure Iselin Skjervågen, media officer at the Meteorological Institute says that there is a high pressure over the north that is responsible for the precipitation in the south. – Generally speaking, if there is high pressure over the north, low pressure comes over the south and vice versa. Her colleague Marek Ratajczak, who is the meteorologist on duty in Tromsø, explains that the high pressure has brought good weather in the north. – What has happened is that there is a high pressure that has settled over the North Calotte a little east of Norway. It just lies there and provides very stable weather. In addition, there is an offshore wind. Then there is rarely any special precipitation. – Does the high pressure in the north cause southerners to get snow? – It is connected. The high pressure blocks the low pressure from reaching the north of the country. In addition, the wind direction is from the south-east towards Austlandet. The moisture from the sea enters Austlandet and towards the mountains. In northern Norway, the low pressure is stopped in Sweden. The weather clears before they reach Norway. – On the other side of the mountain it comes as dry air, explains Ratajczak. The low pressure has been low in Southern Norway for large parts of November. Photo: Screen dump Happens some years The meteorologist says that it is not extremely unusual for this kind of weather. But that doesn’t happen every winter. – It happens some years. In 2014 there was also a very dry period along large parts of the coast in Norway. Then he said that there were also many fires. This month there has also been a Climate Summit. The meteorologist thinks that makes us extra worried about the weather this year. – One might pay a little extra attention to unusual weather now. The weather situation can also be related to climate change, but it can also be completely random, says Ratajczak and adds: – One should not think that this will happen every year from now on. We will also have winters with gales and storms. It depends on where the air is coming from; whether it is from the sea or the continent in the east. On 1 December, the researchers from the Meteorological Institute will have all the data from the month of November. Then they can answer whether we can blame climate change for the strange November weather.
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Therefore, November has been warm and dry in the north and snowy in the south – news Nordland
