9 May 2018

A flood predicted by weather experts in Norway (click here) is now increasingly likely to affect eastern areas of the country.

Potential flooding has been compared to famous July 1995 floods in Eastern Norway, which itself was the worst flood in the region since the 18th century.

Sudden melting of snow during warmer weather caused the 1995 flood, which is estimated to have cost Norway two billion kroner.

Similar conditions in 2018 were predicted by meteorologists as early as March this year, NRK reports.

“There is every reason to be wary of the situation, which is like that of 1995 with a lot of snow in the mountains and a long cold spell. If it suddenly gets warm with a lot of rain, conditions are optimal for a similar spring flood,” climate researcher Øyvind Paasche of the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research told the broadcaster.

Water levels in several rivers in Eastern Norway are now reported to be on the rise as a result of warm spring weather.

Professor Atle Nesje of the University of Bergen’s Department of Earth Science told NRK that water levels were likely to rise in coming days...