The climate in Norway

Climate zone: The northern part of Norway is located in the cold polar zone of the Arctic. The southern areas are in the temperate climate zone.

It won't be really warm up here and given to the water temperatures of 17 degrees maximum you will leave your bathing clothes at home. The warmest and at the same time rainiest province is Vestland. The coldest is Troms og Finnmark. Due to the warmer temperatures, the best time for traveling is from May to September. Winter athletes will find their favorite weather conditions from November to March.

Temperature records of the last 73 years

The hottest temperature measured from 1949 to September 2022 was reported by the Oslo Blindern weather station. In July 2018, the record temperature of 34.6 °C was reported here. The hottest summer from July to September, based on all 21 weather stations in Norway below 970 meters altitude, was recorded in 2006 with an average temperature of 14.5 °C. This average temperature will normally be measured every four to six hours, thus also including the nights. Normally, this value is 12.6 degrees Celsius. The average maximum daily temperature at that time was 18.6 °C.

The coldest day in these 73 years was reported by the Karasjok weather station. Here the temperature dropped to -42.2 °C in January 2016. Karasjok lies at an altitude of 131 meters above sea level. The coldest winter (January to March) was in 1966 with an average temperature of -4.7 °C. In Norway, it is usual to have about 3.6 degrees more at -1.1 °C for this three-month period.

The most precipitation fell in September 1975. With 21.1 mm per day, the Bergen Fredriksberg weather station recorded the highest monthly average of the last 73 years. Incidentally, the region with the most rainfall for the whole year is around Bergen. The driest region is near Dombaas.

Long-term development of temperatures from 1989 - 2021

In contrast to single record values, long-term development cannot simply be brought about by all weather stations in the country. Both the number and the locations are constantly changing. An average value would give a distorted result. If several measuring stations in particularly cold mountain or coastal regions are added in one year, the average would decrease as a result of this alone. If a station fails during the summer or winter months, it does not provide any values and distorts the average again. The subsequent long-term development was therefore reduced to only 5 measuring points in order to have comparable data over as long a period as possible.

In the years 1989 to 2021, there were only these 5 weather stations in the whole country, which reported continuous temperature values. From these weather reports, we have created a long-term development that shows the monthly average temperatures. The hottest month in this entire period was July 2014 at 17.7 °C. February 2010 was the coldest month with an average temperature of -4.1 °C.

The average annual temperature was about 6.5 °C in the years after 1989 and about 6.6 °C in the last years before 2021. So it has hardly changed at all in the past 33 years. This trend only applies to the selected 5 weather stations in Norway. A considerably more comprehensive evaluation of global warming has been provided separately.

Data basis and methodology

The data from the individual measuring stations are based on the archives of the German Weather Service, individual values averaged and supplemented by own elements. In order to determine a representative national average, average values were first calculated for each part of the country, which were then summarized at the national level. Thus, if a disproportionate number of weather stations are located in a small area, their number does not affect the national average. There are 22 stations in Norway itself. In 7 cases, neighboring but nearby weather stations were also used to obtain more accurate values.