Latest news with #BirgitteLindtvedt

Local Norway

Western Norway braced for 35mm of rain in a single hour

The rainy weather began at midday on Thursday and is expected to continue right up until midnight, with the heaviest rain already likely to have fallen on Thursday afternoon. Birgitte Lindtvedt told NRK that traffic was nearly brought to a standstill on the E18 motorway when the rain hit on Thursday afternoon. "The sky was completely blue before suddenly 'boom!' and it started to rain," she told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK . "You could hardly see, and we had to drive slowly even though it was a 90 km/h zone. [Traffic was moving] slowly, and that was good." The orange warning, indicating "a severe situation needing contingency preparedness", was issued for the entire west coast of Norway from Kristiansand all the way up to Oppdal, with much of inland Norway also affected. Areas affected include South-Trøndelag, Vestlandet, Agder, and western parts of Telemark, Buskerud and Innlandet. Advertisement The showers started in the south at midday and have been moving north throughout the day. The institute is warning drivers to avoid all unnecessary travel in affected areas, to listen to traffic radio and watch social media and websites for advice from the authorities. It is also warning against hiking in exposed areas such as in the mountains, on the water or in open landscapes, due to the risk of lightning. The showers could cause flooding in buildings and surface water in affected areas, which it warned risked damaging electrical devices.