2020 is the warmest year measured in the country so far – NRK Norway – Summary of news from different parts of the country

When the previous record for the warmest year in Norway was set in 2014, the average temperature in the country was 2.2 degrees above normal, according to the Meteorological Institute.

As it stands now, 2020 will beat the 2014 heat record by 0.2 degrees. This is a surprising amount, says climate researcher Hans Olav Hygen.

– This is unusual. Typically, registrations tend to be in the hundreds. Now we are at least a couple of tenths up, and there is a lot in my world.

Hygen emphasizes that a single warmer year is not necessarily due to climate change. However, due to climate change, we must be prepared for the fact that heat logs are something that will happen more frequently. For cold records, the opposite is true.

– What seems to be the trend throughout the year are warmer winters and colder summers. This has been the signature until 2020. We will probably see the biggest changes in the winter, says Hygen.

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The weather is changing us

The heat came at the turn of the year: on January 2, it was 19 degrees at Sunndalsøra in Nordmøre, and the month ended up being the second warmest January we’ve had in Norway, explains meteorologist Kristian Gislefoss.

Taken together, the winter months of December, January and February were up to 4.5 degrees warmer than normal. Thus, winter was the mildest since measurements began in 1900.

Then came summer:

– May and July ended below normal, which was perhaps a bit unexpected, but the summer was quite cool, says Gislefoss.

August was a rainy month, with several episodes of torrential rains.

– Then we have November, which stands out as the warmest we have had in Norway.

The meteorologist predicts shorter and milder winters, with fewer snow days. In summer there may be heat waves – and it will become more humid.

According to Hygen, there are also reasons to expect an increase and heavy rains, but also more drought. That the climate is changing affects us in several ways, he believes.

– This can affect food production, something that we already see internationally. Farmers need to be more prepared to know how they will adapt to the climate and climate change, as it can certainly affect our food production in Norway. It is not enough to adapt to the world we are used to, we have to think a bit about what we can find in the future, says Hygen.

Global phenomenon

According to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, 2020 will be one of the warmest years on record globally. If it will be the warmest, it won’t be known until early January.

The heat comes despite the fact that the natural weather phenomenon La Niña, which cools much of the Pacific Ocean and has a cooling effect on global temperature, has developed towards the end of the year.

La Niña is the “sister” of El Niño, which in turn means that you get a slightly stronger global temperature than you would otherwise because large parts of the Pacific Ocean become warmer than normal.

– Globally, record warm years tend to arrive when they are El Niño years. This year it’s the other way around, with La Niña, and then it’s colder. However, 2020 is racing the warmer years and will have enough podium spots, says Hygen.

He believes that global warming should be taken very seriously.

– It’s a slow creeping mess. Areas where many people live today are exposed to floods or droughts. They cannot produce food and people start to move, he says and continues:

– So we have a vulnerability that we must take very seriously and start planning for the future.