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WEATHER

What’s the weather going to be like in Norway’s main holiday month?

Norway's three-week 'joint holiday' starts on July 8th. How much sunshine and how much rain is forecast for the country's peak holiday month?

What's the weather going to be like in Norway's main holiday month?
A popular sea swimming spot on the Oslofjord. Photo: Nikolai Kobets Freund / Oslo kommune

Marek Ratajczak, a forecaster at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, told The Local that July was shaping up to be “quite usual for the Norwegian climate”, with a few days of sunshine, followed by a few days of colder weather, and dry days interspersed with rainy days. 

“What the forecasts show is that there is a higher probability of low pressure systems in the Scandinavian region, which means that the weather will probably be changing a bit, like it has been doing in now in June. So we will have some cold days and some warm days.” 

On the plus side, he said that the forecasts suggested this July would be slightly warmer than average, but it could also be rainy. 

“It depends where the low pressure is located. If it’s located closer to the UK, then it has a higher chance of bringing in hot air from the south and southeast,” he said.

“The low pressure may also increase the chance of at least some periods of precipitation. You can expect a bit of usual Norwegian weather, when you have some days of sunshine and some days of rain, but there are no signals suggesting that it’s going to be unusually wet.”

Yr, the weather forecaster jointly run by the institute and NRK, only issues 21-day forecasts, but already in the days leading up to July 21st, it’s clear that some rain is expected. 

Here are Yr’s 21-day forecasts for Oslo, Bergen, and Tromsø on June 26th: 

Oslo:

Source: Yr.no

Bergen: 

Source: Yr.no

Tromsø: 

Source: Yr.no

Yr expects temperatures in Oslo to fluctuate between 14C and 20C in the first week of July, rising to 21C on the Saturday and Sunday. The second week of July, will be slightly warmer at the start of the week, with temperatures rising as high as 25C on the weekend, and remaining around that warm in the first half of the third week. 

In Bergen, it will be significantly cooler, with temperatures fluctuating between 10C-15C in the first week of July, becoming slightly warmer during the second week, hitting a peak of around 20C on the weekend, and then remaining around that warm for the first half of the third week. 

In Tromsø, the story is similar but a little cooler, with temperatures of between 10C and 17C in the first week, staying closer to 17C in the second week. 

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TOURISM

‘Coolcations’: Tourists flock to Norway and Sweden to dodge summer heat

Driven away from typical summer destinations by intense heat and prolonged heatwaves, tourists are flocking to cooler climates like Norway and Sweden for their holidays.

'Coolcations': Tourists flock to Norway and Sweden to dodge summer heat

Far from her home in the tourist mecca of Tenerife, Cati Padilla is one of the growing number of travellers escaping heatwaves for cooler holidays in Nordic countries.

Countries like Norway and Sweden in northern Europe are now promoting “coolcations” to attract visitors to their temperate climates.

Why leave the Canaries in summer? “To escape the heat,” said Padilla while on holiday with her friends.

“Norway attracted our attention a long time ago because of the green landscape, the mountains and the ice,” added the civil servant in her fifties on the so-called “troll path”, a serpentine mountain route towards the fjords.

In 2023, foreign overnight stays rose by 22 percent in Norway and 11 percent in Sweden according to official statistics, mainly driven by the end of Covid-related restrictions in 2022 and a slump in Scandinavian currencies.

But a survey in Germany for tourist organisation Visit Sweden also found that two out of five people plan to change their travel habits due to the southern European heat, opting for different seasons or cooler destinations.

“Coolcation is not just about the weather,” said Susanne Andersson, head of Visit Sweden. “It’s about travelling to places where it’s a little bit cooler both in the weather but also cooler in the sense of not that many people.”

READ ALSO: Why are temperatures of 25C considered a heatwave in Sweden?

For some people, gone are the overcrowded Mediterranean beaches and heatwaves causing forest fires and the partial closure of the Acropolis in the Greek capital in June.

Nowadays, many prefer to take a dip in a lake or a fjord, or fill their lungs with fresh air on a mountain hike in relative isolation.

– Killer summer –

When British tourist Pam disembarked from a cruise ship on the majestic Geiranger Fjord, a UNESCO World Heritage site, she expected to find cool weather.

But she found herself in sandals and a t-shirt, rather than the raincoat and woollen clothes she packed.

“It’s been wonderful,” said the resident of Lichfield city in west-central England. “It’s still not that hot that you can’t walk.”

“It just does not interest me now to sit on a sunbed, read a book, get up, go and have something to eat and come back to the sunbed. I’d rather visit places, find the history and just look at beautiful places.”

READ MORE: How will Norway be affected by climate change-driven tourism?

The frequency and intensity of extreme heat events and the duration of heatwaves have “almost certainly” increased since 1950 and will continue to do so with global warming, according to UN climate experts.

By 2050, half of Europe’s population could face high or very high risk heat stress in summer, with heat-related deaths potentially doubling or tripling with temperature rises of between 1.5 degrees Celsius (34.7 degrees Fahrenheit) to 3C.

“Spain is a no. Greece is a no,” said 74-year-old French pensioner Gerard Grollier, as he disembarked from a coach in Geiranger village in western Norway.

Why Norway? “The climate is much more pleasant,” explained his daughter, Virginie, a financial adviser. “We have not protected our planet, and now that is impacting tourism.”

– Submerged villages –

The capital of Lapland in northern Finland, Rovaniemi, recorded a 29 percent jump in overnight stays last year.

“You can feel the ‘coolcation’ here, the trend started years ago but it has increased with the hot summers in southern and central Europe,” said Sanna Karkkainen, who promotes tourism in Rovaniemi.

The coolcation influx has its issues, including a surge in Airbnb properties and unruly tourists.

“Our main concern is to have too many people at the same time,” emphasised Jan Ove Tryggestad, former mayor of a Norwegian village where a cruise ship carrying 6,000 passengers and 2,000 crew members had just docked.

“It’s a small village here. In Hellesylt, there are between 280 to 300 winter inhabitants. Obviously it’s a bit of a culture shock when suddenly a small town, by European standards, turns up,” he added. “But we adapt.”

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