the inland districts, July is the hottest month, with a mean temperature
of 57° round the Trondhjem Fjord, and 5378° in. Finmarken.
But in i ’inmarken, at the end of June or the beginning of July,
when the sky is clear and the direct influence of the sun is felt all
through the twenty-four hours, the thermometer may now and
then rise pretty high. In Karasjok and Sydvaranger, for instance,
88° have been recorded. In Trondhjem, there has been a maximum
of 87°, and at certain other stations, from 85° to 86°, while
on the other hand, in the most southern of the Lofoten Isles, out
in the middle of the ocean, the thermometer has never risen above
68°. As early as the first half of October, the diurnal mean
temperature falls below freezing-point in the inland districts of
Finmarken, while out bn the coast, the fall in the temperature
takes place very slowly. At the out-lying coast stations in
Lofoten and southwards, it is only in the end of January or
beginning of February that the diurnal mean temperature falls
below 32°. The winter temperature thus varies extremely in
northern Norway. In Finmarken there is a veritable pole of maximum
cold, with an average mean temperature for the three winter
months, December, January and February, of 4° at Karasjok, 6°
at Kautokeino, and 12° at, Sydvaranger. I t cannot but be said,
however, that the winter temperature of this pole is rather high, as
compared with conditions at the Siberian pole, where the mean
temperature for January in the same latitude ij|H 5 8 °. The
winter temperature on the coast is astonishingly high in relation
to the average mean temperature of the latitude, for the mean
temperature of the coldest month, which in Yard« is 21° and in
Gjesvser 24°, varies from 31° to 30° in Lofoten and south of those
islands. I t is also well known that Lofoten is the place with the
mildest winter in proportion to its northerly situation. In the fjords,
the temperature is naturally lower than on the coast. Thus Alten
has a mean temperature in February of 16 Vs“, which we find again
at the higher-lying stations farther south, e. g. Hatfjelddalen (755 ft)
and Lieme (1463 ft). In Finmarken’s pole of maximum cold, the
very lowest temperatures in the country have been observed, viz.
56078° at Karasjok, and 35178° at Kautokeino. In Hatfjeld-
dalen and Sydvaranger too, the mercury has been frozen, while
the minimum temperature on the coast, even far up the Alten
Fjord, has not been lower than —23°, at Yardo only —6 ’/2°
and in Lofoten no more than 5°. The number of frosty days in
the year is, of course, greatest in Finmarken, averaging from 243 at
Kautokeino to 205 at Yard»-and Alten, and 188 at Gjesvær. In
Hatfjelddalen, there is an average of more than 200 days of frost
in the year, and at that station, as well as at .Karasjok and
Kautokeino, night frosts are observed in all the months of the year.
The smallest number of frosty days 100 and le s s ^ ^ is found
in Lofoten, and at the outermost lighthouse stations southwards,
along the coast. The temperature remains low far on into the
spring, especially in Finmarken ; not until the end of April or the
beginning of May, does the diurnal mean temperature rise above
32°, and June has a mean temperature that is no higher than
that of May farther south. Summer, however, often comes pretty
suddenly in these parts, when the sun’s rays, unimpeded by clouds,
can exert their influence both day and night.
Wind. The average velocity of the wind, which reaches
22 miles an hour at the outermost coast stations in Finmarken and
Lofoten, is also considerable elsewhere ; only at the inland stations,
where there are often calms and seldom storms-, it is from 4 to 9
miles an hour. The coast stations of Finmarken have the greatest
number of stormy days in the year, viz. 45 to 62. Trondhjem
has 44, elsewhere on the coast, 20 to 30 is the most usual number.
Far up the fjords and upon the Finmarken plateau, the number of
stormy days does - not amount to 5 in the year. Most of the
storms all through the year come from the SW and W. At Yard®,
however, during the summer, they are generally from the NW.
The storms are most frequent in the winter, from November to
March. The prevailing winds are westerly to northerly in the
summer, southerly - to easterly in the winter.
Rainfall. The maximal zone for annual rainfall, which as
stated above, passes within the coast-line in western Norway, following
its direction, continues also northwards, though not with
such high absolute rainfalls. We find, for instance-, a maximum
of 51 inches north of thé Trondhjem Fjord at Berge, and 47
inches within Redo, as also an especially marked-maximum of more
than 59 inches at Svolvær in Lofoten. Otherwise, the rainfall
diminishes eastwards inland towards the Swedish frontier, at several
places, to as little as 20 or 16 inches. There is also a smaller
rainfall on the southern and western Lofoten Isles. Thus Host
has only, 28 inches annual rainfall. From Svolvser’s maximum,
the rainfall diminishes slowly northwards along the "coast to