Norway town records January heat record of 19 degrees Celsisus
Mayor of Sunndal, Stale Refstie, poses in a short sleeve shirt on an exceptionally warm day in Sunndal, Norway, Jan. 2, 2020. A new heat record for January in Norway was set in the morning with temperatures reaching 19.0 degrees Celsius in Sunndalsora, the administrative capital of the Sunndal municipality in eastern Norway. EPA
A small town in western Norway on Thursday set a new January winter warmth record for the Scandinavian country, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute said.
The mercury in Sunndalsora rose to 19.0 degrees Celsisus, the weather service said. The previous record of 17.9 degrees was recorded in 1989 in the village of Tafjord. Both Sunndalsora and Tafjord are located in the county of More og Romsdal.
Sunndalsora is surrounded by steep mountains. Some are popular among base jumpers - an extreme sport that involves parachuting from high cliff edges or man-made structures.
Duty officer Martin Granerod with the weather service attributed the unseasonally mild temperatures to a so-called foehn wind, a warm, downhill wind, Oslo daily VG reported.
Temperatures were set to drop on Friday, amid heavy rain, according to the weather service.
Sunndalsmora also holds Norway's warmth record for December with 18.3 degrees measured in 1998, and the warmest February temperature of 18.9 degrees, which was registered there in 1990.
Several other locations in the county recorded mild temperatures. Andalsnes, also in the same county, earlier on Thursday briefly held the January record for Norway with 18.6 degrees, according to the weather service. (DPA)