snow Norway
After an unusually warm June, Norway's July summer holidays got off to an extremely chilly start over the weekend. Strong winds, heavy rain, hail and even some snow caught many tourists by surprise.

Slippery roads and as much as 30 centimeters of snow in the mountains prompted warnings from state highway officials that motorists shouldn't drive over mountain passes without snow tires on their vehicles. One mountain lodge, Sognefjellshytta, reported a new record low temperature for July of minus-7.2C late Saturday night, and so did several other weather stations in the mountains of Southern Norway.


The strong winds also forced cancellation of all cruise ferries between Southern Norway and Denmark, not long after they finally were allowed to run again when Corona-related travel restrictions were eased. The gales and high seas also prompted state meteorologists to issue small craft warnings and urge all boatowners to remain in port.

The weather turned bad all over Norway, with temperatures expected to stay low all week from north to south. A new high-pressure system was due to move in over the weekend that could bring better weather "in a week or two," meteorologist Kristian Gislefoss told state broadcaster NRK, "but if not, we'll continue to have unstable weather and what we often call a typical Norwegian summer."