2020 could be the warmest year ever measured in Norway, meteorologists believe

The average temperature so far this year is one of the highest ever measured in Norway.

In the first eleven months of the year, Norway’s average temperature was 2.2 degrees above normal for the period. 

The normal temperature is calculated as the average over the thirty years from 1961 to 1990.

At the moment, 2014 holds the record for the warmest year. In that year, the average temperature for Norway was 2.2 degrees above normal. 

2011 has been the second warmest year with 1.8 degrees above normal. 

The national measurements date back to 1900.

“We still have to wait until December is over before we know which year will be the warmest. But we can already say that 2020 will be one of the warmest years we have measured,” climate researcher Reidun Gangstø Skaland at the Meteorological Institute noted.

Didn’t feel that way

Although 2020 is set to be the warmest or second warmest year in Norway, it may not have felt so hot for many Norwegians.

“Most people have a holiday in July, and it was cold in July this year. The same was the case with May. But it is the persistent mild weather in the autumn and winter that makes us likely to have a record hot year this year,” state meteorologist Rafael Escobar Løvdahl at the Meteorological Institute added.

2020 is also set to be one of the warmest years on record globally. 

Reidun Gangstø Skaland emphasizes that the fact that a single year is extra hot is not necessarily due to climate change.

“But climate change means that the trend is constantly rising and that the probability increases that we will experience record warm years,” she noted.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today