01
Observe first
Sixty-two automatic stations reporting every ten minutes, plus eleven where a person still walks out at 06:00 and reads a thermometer, because the model needs something it did not invent.
Meteorological service / the west coast / since 1867
988hPa
Falling. A deep low crossing on Saturday, sixty-two stations watching it, and a forecast that will tell you how sure it is.
Seven daysToday
11°
6° overnight
Rain, heavy at times
1002 hPa
90 % confidence
Tue
9°
5° overnight
Squally showers
996 hPa
85 % confidence
Wed
8°
3° overnight
Bright, cold, dry
1008 hPa
70 % confidence
Thu
10°
4° overnight
Cloud thickening
1004 hPa
60 % confidence
Fri
12°
7° overnight
Rain arriving west
994 hPa
55 % confidence
Sat
13°
8° overnight
Wet and windy
988 hPa
45 % confidence
Sun
11°
7° overnight
Showers, easing
997 hPa
35 % confidence
The useful part of a forecast is not the number. It is how far the fifty runs of the model disagreed with each other, and we have published that on the front page since 1994.
Isobar is the regional meteorological service for the western seaboard. It keeps sixty-two stations, eleven of them still read by hand at six in the morning, and an archive going back to 1867.
Everything the service produces is free to use, including the observations, the model output and the mistakes, which are catalogued in the same archive as everything else.
How a forecast is made
Three steps, and the third is the one that took a reorganisation to get right.
02
Run it fifty times
The forecast is an ensemble: the same model from fifty slightly different starting points. What we publish is where those fifty agree and, more usefully, where they do not.
03
Say how sure
Every forecast carries a confidence. A confident wrong forecast costs more than an uncertain one, and pretending to certainty is the failure this service was reorganised to stop in 1994.
In force this week
Colour is severity. The percentage is how likely the event is, not how bad it will be.
- YellowWindCoast, Sogn to StadFri 18:00 – Sat 09:0070 %
- OrangeRainInner HordalandFri 22:00 – Sun 06:0055 %
- YellowRainBergen and environsSat 03:00 – Sat 21:0080 %
- YellowWavesOuter coastSat 00:00 – Sat 18:0065 %
- GreenSnowAbove 900 mSun 12:00 – Mon 06:0030 %
The 1991–2020 normal
Mean temperature by month at the city station, in degrees. The tint is the number.
1.9Jan
1.8Feb
3.7Mar
6.2Apr
10.4May
13.2Jun
15.1Jul
14.8Aug
12.0Sep
8.9Oct
5.1Nov
2.6Dec
- 33.4 °C
- Highest, Ullensvang, 1947
- −26.1 °C
- Lowest, Sognefjell, 1987
- 229 mm
- Wettest day, Modalen, 2005
- 62.4 m/s
- Strongest gust, Kråkenes, 1992
A forecast that is right and was lucky is worth less than one that was wrong and said so.
Ingrid Hovden, chief forecaster
Sixty-two stations
Fourteen of the long-running ones. Every reading any of them has ever made is downloadable.
- SN50540Bergen – Florida12 m1904–Manned 06:00
- SN50500Bergen – Sandsli48 m1979–Automatic
- SN51530Voss – Bø125 m1891–Manned 06:00
- SN52535Modalen114 m1955–Automatic
- SN53101Vangsnes49 m1876–Manned 06:00
- SN54110Fedje39 m1949–Automatic
- SN55290Kvamskogen455 m1968–Automatic
- SN56420Ullensvang12 m1867–Manned 06:00
- SN57420Slåtterøy fyr32 m1922–Automatic
- SN58900Sauda18 m1895–Automatic
- SN59800Stad – Kråkenes40 m1997–Automatic
- SN60990Takle38 m1969–Automatic
- SN61770Sognefjell1 413 m1978–Automatic
- SN62480Bulken324 m1895–Manned 06:00
What we publish
- Free
- Every observation and every forecast, as an API and as a file.
- Marine
- A separate coastal product, issued four times a day, in Norwegian and English.
- Aviation
- TAF and METAR for six aerodromes, on the international schedule.
- Archive
- Daily observations back to 1867, digitised from the ledgers by hand.
Observations, data, corrections
Four stations on the watch
Bergen
Forecast desk, staffed always
Allégaten 70, 5007
60.39 N 5.32 E
Ålesund
Coastal radar
Nedre Strandgate 8, 6002
62.47 N 6.15 E
Tromsø
Northern synoptic
Kirkegata 2, 9008
69.65 N 18.96 E
Bjørnøya
Automatic, visited twice a year
Herwighamna
74.50 N 19.00 E
The forecast desk is staffed at all hours; everybody else answers between eight and four, and the archive answers when it can.