North Norway records driest January ever

According to the Altaposten newspaper, the region's ski slopes are hard and icy, the yards of the community's day care centres are rock solid, with no snow for the children to dig in, and  the region's parks and fields are bereft of the usual snowmen. 

 

"We think that's it is unusual and fascinating that we have such a special weather situation," Tore Vassbø, a local meteorologist from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, told Altaposten. 

"Never before has there been so little rain in January as now. Not since we started measurements in any case." 

 

Alta municipality, in the county of Finnmark, received only 4.6mm of precipitation this January, the lowest since records began. The UK on the other hand received record high rainfall in January. 

 

"It is due to high pressure over Russia, while there is low pressure to the West and South of us in the Atlantic Ocean, the UK, Central Europe and up to the West of Svalbard, Vassbø said.