– A new low pressure is on the way, and it will be the same as last time. The difference is that quite a lot of Agder is covered by the orange warning that starts tonight, says meteorologist on duty Håkon Mjelstad. ORANGE: A good supply of snow is expected in Eastern and Southern Norway until Friday evening. There will also be snow in Western Norway. Illustration: Meteorological Institute Until Friday evening, another 40 centimeters of snow can fall. Locally there may be more. – Southern parts of Telemark and Vestfold are also included in the forecast, but here the snow will probably come somewhat later, Mjelstad adds. Most precipitation is expected in the first part of Friday. Local variations in temperature can cause the precipitation to come as rain or sleet. Bad weather for several days In the last day and a half, a lot of snow has fallen in Eastern Norway. This has led to slippery roads and a number of major and minor traffic accidents. Now there will be much more snow and difficult driving conditions on Friday. – We take into account that this could hit the E18 and Sørlandsbanen. Here we imagine that it can be really challenging, says Mjelstad. Just south of Lygna in Gran municipality in Innlandet, two wagon trains ran into the ditch on Thursday. Photo: Otto Fjøsne There will also be a lot of wind. It may be closed on mountain passes in southern Norway. There is a yellow warning for 15–25 centimeters of snow in large parts of the country. There is also a yellow warning for strong gusts of wind in central and inner parts of Western Norway. The same also applies to parts of Nordland. Exposed coastal and fjord areas in Nordland and Trøndelag may also experience moderate icing on ships. In southern and eastern Norway, mild weather may present new problems at the weekend. – We envision quite a lot of mild weather in the whole of southern Norway, and it could last over the weekend. Then there is a transition to plus degrees and rain, and that presents a slightly different kind of challenge. It will probably be slippery in some places. Trond Blesvik chose to go skiing to work on Thursday morning. Large amounts of snow make traffic in Oslo challenging, but here in Østensjøveien there was less traffic than usual. Photo: Jon Eeg / NTB Wagon trains with bad tires Wagon trains in particular have had problems on both Wednesday and Thursday. On Thursday afternoon, the E16 in Innlandet was closed for a period at Lomen church after three trains collided. No injuries were reported, and the road was cleared. On Wednesday, the Norwegian Road Administration discovered that a truck train from Austria had 11 worn tyres, with illegally low tread depth. The wagon train was one of the transports that caused chaos on the E6 in Follo by the Nøstvet tunnel on Wednesday afternoon, and it also got stuck on the gentle uphill to the checkpoint at Taraldrud. The German driver was fined NOK 11,000 and banned from driving. The Swedish Road Administration put the wheel locks on. A wagon train from Austria with a German driver had such bad tires that it struggled to get into the Taraldrud control station on Wednesday. Photo: Statens Vegvesen Ruter canceled travel guarantee On Thursday, Ruter canceled its travel guarantee in the Oslo area. The travel guarantee means that people can have expenses of up to NOK 750 covered if there is a delay of more than 20 minutes on a bus, tram or subway. The reason why the travel guarantee does not apply now is that the weather leads to both cancellations and major delays, especially on bus routes. You can check the entire list of deviations at Ruter here. – This is an exception in a force majeure situation where there are events that are beyond our control, such as a lot of snow, and when there are conditions the travelers should know about, says press officer Øystein Dahl Johansen in Ruter to Dagbladet. He asks people to avoid traveling if they don’t have to, and to allow plenty of time. Choose the subway or train before the bus if you have the opportunity, is his message. In Oslo, many have also chosen to get their feet wet, with or without skis. Many buses are cancelled. At St.Hanshaugen in Oslo, this person has found the skis. Many people have stayed in their home offices Despite a lot of snow, continuous shoveling and fewer cars on the roads have meant that traffic has mostly gone smoothly on Thursday, Vegtrafikksentralen East informs news. According to traffic operator Christofa Key-Nilsen, it looks like people have followed the police’s call to choose a home office if they can. Mountain passes opened After several mountain passes had been closed due to the snowy weather, conditions had improved considerably on Thursday morning. All mountain passes between east and west are open to normal traffic. Hardangervidda opened after convoy driving. The only stretch that is closed due to storms is Fv. 450 Hunnedalsvegen. Leiro boom on Hardangervidda is open. Photo: STATENS VEGVESEN The subway will run as normal In Oslo, Sporveien has cleared the subway network of snow throughout the night. – We have had around 20 men who have been out at work. All lines must be ready for operation from the crack of dawn, Håkon Uggerud in Sporveien tells NTB. The crews have faced the biggest challenges on the Holmenkoll track. The machines have been clearing snow here since 3pm on Wednesday. – We will have two machines running there continuously throughout the day. Traffic must go as normal, also there. Breaking of the subway night to Thursday No major problems at Oslo Airport Communications manager at Oslo Airport, Harald Nygaard Kvam, says that air traffic seems to be going without any particular problems, but that travelers can expect delays of 10-15 minutes. – There will be a lot of de-icing and removal of snow and ice from aircraft, but it is standard winter operation, he explains. Some delays in train traffic There are also reports of some delays in train traffic. Due to the weather conditions, the trains run at a slower speed on parts of the Hovedbanen, Gjøvikbanen and Kongsvingerbanen. Bane Nor’s press officer, Olav Nordli, says people must be prepared for some delays of 15–20 minutes. – The combination of a lot of snow and wind is difficult for our switches, so we have some delays because of that. It’s raining again and the heat on the switches can’t take it away.
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The snow chaos is not over, now the rain is coming – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
