Norway Natural Environment

Norway lies in the Scandinavian region in northern Europe.  In shares a long border with Sweden to the east, and has borders with Finland and Russia to the far northeast in the Artic Circle.  The Berents Seas, the Atlantic Ocean the North Sea form long coastlines along Norway’s north, west and south, respectively.  About half of the length of the country from southwest to northeast lies within the Artic Circle.  The country has an area of 385,000 sq km.

Much of the terrain is high plateaus and mountainous.  The average height of the terrain is over 457 m above sea level.  Only two lowland areas in the south and southeast lie less than 150 m above sea level.  The mountainous plateau area includes the Scandinavian mountain range along the border with Sweden.  This range is 1,530 km long and its highest peak in the south, Galdhopiggen, reaches 2,469 m.  In the centre of the country are permanent ice fields sitting on high plateaus eroded by glaciers; further north are mountains which are often very close to the coast.  The coastline is lined with fiords and rugged high grounds. 

Lowlands are found around the Oslo fiord in the southeast along the middle and lower valleys of the Glama River, and around the Trondheim lowlands along the coast in the centre of the country.  The principal rivers include the Glomma and Lågen and Tanaelv.

The mountains provide plenty of hydropower, and are rich in minerals such as iron ore, copper, titanium, coal, zinc, lead, nickel and pyrites.  Offshore are large reserves of petroleum and natural gas.

The capital is Oslo with a population of about 840,000 people.  Other major cities are Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim.

Some would say, "It's really, really cold there..."  This is true, but the climate in the country varies depending on the region.

The climate is temperate along the coast, and is colder inland and further north.  However, the Gulf Stream from the Atlantic makes western Norway warmer than many other regions that are as far north.  For example, the average January temperature around Lofoten Islands is about 25 degrees Celsius.  The Gulf Stream also keeps nearly all the seaports ice-free. 

The weather along the coast is different from that found inland partly because in the mountains form a barrier to the air currents coming in from the ocean.  Therefore, in the summer, when the sea is cooler than the land, the westerly winds make the coast cooler than the inland regions, whereas in the winter, the coast is warmer than inlands because the warm winds from the west are blocked by the mountains.

The west coast has more rainfall with about 200 cm a year in some areas, compared to Oslo in the southeast which averages 73 cm.  Rain comes mainly in the summer.  The temperature is highest in the south; for example, in Oslo, the average temperature in July is about 17.4°C and the average in January is about −4.8°C.

As Norway lies close to the Artic, the number of days of continuous daylight in the summer increases as one goes farther north. In the far north, there is 24-hour daylight for more than two months in a year; in the south, continuous daylight averages about 19 hours a day in midsummer.

Similarly, in winter, in the far north, there is continuous darkness for about 2 months in a year and in the south there is about 6 hours of daylight a day in midwinter. The winter night sky in the north often has displays of the aurora borealis or northern lights.