Several stretches of road are closed on Monday due to the weather, and several roads are at risk of being closed. – If you are going a long way, you should calculate extra time, check that the roads are open, ensure enough fuel or battery and have good tyres, is the call from Håvard Langmo, who is a traffic operator at Vegtrafikksentralen nord. And there have been several landslides: Fylkesvei 8830 Maribukt – Store Lerresfjord Fylkesvei 882 Tappeluft and Øksfjord ferry quay Fylkesvei 8018 Nuvsvåg – Tverrfjorden Fylkesvei 8014 Sør-Tverrfjord – Sandland The Norwegian Road Administration does not expect the opening of the latter three sections until Tuesday at the earliest. AVALANCHE: The road between Nuvsvåg and Tverrfjord is also closed due to avalanches. Photo: Jan-Erik Steine / news Geir Stensen from the village of Nuvsvåg had great luck when he was on his way home on Sunday. Just after a bend before the village of Øksfjord, it suddenly turned completely white. – I came at normal speed, and when everything is white it’s not just about seeing what’s in front of you. But suddenly I see that here everything is blocked and all I have to do is brake – but of course it was too late. DROVE INTO AN AVALANCHE: Geir Stensen from Nuvsvåg in Finnmark drove straight into an avalanche, just after it had gone. Photo: Geir Julius Stensen / Privat Havnet in the middle of the avalanche Geir Stensen is on the brakes, but is unable to brake in time. He ends up five or six meters into the avalanche. – It was a bit difficult to get out of the car, because the doors were blocked. I had to hang out of the side windows to clear away the snow, so I got the door open. He looked at the masses of snow that were still floating on the lake. He said that he must have arrived just after the landslide had crossed the road. – The minutes played on my side that day. Then it was a matter of getting away quickly. – I didn’t want to sit in the car, because you never know – there could be several landslides in the same place. Landslides often have several loose points up in the mountain, so it’s a bit scary. – It was just a matter of getting away from it, he adds. He gets over all the snow on the road and in cover a little way down the road. – I looked up into the hillside for fresh forest that has never been exposed to landslides, then more cars came later. Geir was called for help, so the road was reported closed to other road users. Now he is weatherproof for an undetermined amount of time, as there have been several avalanches in the area. Unstable conditions The avalanche warning service reports that there is the greatest danger of avalanches in Finnmark from Monday evening. “There are generally unstable conditions. Naturally triggered wet avalanches are expected in the lowlands in the evening, while fresh and unstable flakes of fresh snow must be avoided in the high altitudes,” the website states. If you move further down the country, the degree of danger increases considerably. Here, too, the roads are affected and county road 7940 between Lauksundskaret in Skjervøy and Arnøyhamn is closed due to an avalanche. From 14.00, county road 864 in Tromsø will be closed due to the risk of avalanches. This will mean that the residents of Vågnes, Skittenelv and Oldervik will be isolated. The E6 over Kvænangsfjellet also closes at 19.00 due to the risk of landslides. New assessments will be made on both sections on Tuesday. In the avalanche warning for Troms and Nordland, the danger level is up to 4 – great avalanche danger. “Change of weather! Naturally triggered landslides are expected due to rising temperatures and rain in the latter part of the day. New snow problem high in the mountains. Stay away from avalanche terrain,” says varsom.no. The greatest danger in these areas is from Monday afternoon. ROAD CLOSED: The road barrier is down and the road is closed on county road 8830 at Maribukt, here in the direction of Korsfjorden in Vest-Finnmark. There was an avalanche here on Sunday, and the road is still closed. Photo: Statens vegvesen Weather change After a cold period first in the north, then in the south, there is a change in weather in most of the country with temperature rises of up to 40 degrees in both the north and the south. In Bodø it can get up to 5 plus degrees, while Tromsø is reported to be 4. In Finnmark it stays a little cooler, with a variation of 0 degrees and down to minus 13 degrees. And with higher temperatures – the precipitation changes to the slightly wetter type. Throughout the day, there will be wind and rain throughout northern Norway. RAIN: A lot of rain is expected in large parts of northern Norway at the start of the week between Svolvær and Hammerfest. Photo: yr.no – Large parts of northern Norway are getting a real round of mild weather now, but Finnmark may escape the worst of it. That’s what meteorologist on duty Marek Ratajczak says. – There is a risk that there may be some freezing rain in other parts of both Finnmarksvidda and Vest-Finnmark. We have danger warnings today about both rain and ice on the roads, adds Ratajczak. WEATHER: Duty meteorologist Marek Ratajczak reports rain during the day. Photo: Inga Maret Solberg Åhrén / news The danger warning is currently yellow, and reports between Svolvær and Hammerfest about expected local precipitation of 30-40 mm within 12 hours. From Monday morning to Tuesday evening, 70–90 mm of precipitation is locally expected in 24 hours between Nesna and Narvik in Nordland. In the most intense period, there will be 40-50 mm of rain in 12 hours, it is reported. Eastern Finnmark escapes the rain. – In the first instance, says meteorologist on duty Ratajczak. – The wind is decreasing, and then there will be a changing breeze and scattered snow showers for the next few hours, before it starts to increase from this afternoon to a south-easterly gale – and then the snowy weather from West Finnmark will come in to the east as well. SNOW WEATHER: A yellow warning has also been issued for snow in the east of Troms and in the west of Finnmark on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday afternoon and evening, around 20–40 cm of snow is expected within 12 hours in these areas. Photo: varsom.no – Take it easy Traffic is affected throughout northern Norway. The snowy weather causes delays in air traffic, and plus temperatures and rain make the roads challenging. There have already been several car recoveries in Troms and Nordland on Monday morning. At Ytteren i Rana, there has also been a traffic accident involving three cars. Håvard Langmo, traffic operator at Vegtrafikksentralen nord, urges to be careful and allow plenty of time on the roads. – We encourage road users to follow the traffic and weather reports today. People have to be prepared for longer journey times when it gets slippery, or if something happens that means there may be a wait. The change in weather has led to the center starting to receive reports of challenging driving conditions. – In Nordland, we are getting a number of reports that it has started to become slippery due to this change in weather, with a lot of rain. In Finnmark we have quite a bit of snow, but it is starting to open up – so I encourage you to check the traffic reports there. – Slow down, take it easy and show consideration in traffic, is the advice from the traffic operator. On Tuesday, it will return to slightly lower temperatures in most of Finnmark, while Troms and Nordland will keep the temperatures mostly throughout the week.
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Big avalanche danger in the north – several roads closed after the avalanche – news Troms and Finnmark
