Friday 29th January 2016, 12.20pm (day 1,618)
A somewhat strange day. Apocalyptic weather forecasts led to most of Bergen shutting down at lunchtime; my day’s work at Høgskolen i Bergen was truncated as a result, and it was at the point of termination that I took this picture, which doesn’t quite capture how foul it was here, though I like the greyness of it (I knocked down the saturation a bit, but only a bit). Shortly after this KLM then cancelled my flight home, which explains why I’m still here and won’t be home until tomorrow night, 24 hours after originally scheduled.
Yet in the end the afternoon’s weather in the city, while poor, was certainly no worse than it often can be here. I originally got quite angry about this, feeling that everyone could have done with a little less panic. However, it seems that the coastal mountains may have protected the city somewhat. Apparently areas futher north today had the strongest winds ever recorded in Norway. But hey, I’m still allowed to be pissed off that I didn’t make it home (quite a few flights happily left Flesland airport), particularly on a Friday night. So another day in Norway tomorrow, then. So be it.
I was in Bergen when the warnings about the ‘hurricane’ were about, and I was so worried when people were telling to be inside to be safe. That’s annoying that your flight was cancelled though, hope you weren’t delayed too long!
I think with hindsight the mountains protected the city from the worst of the winds. I was annoyed I didn’t get home on Friday night, but that was just because it’d been a busy week and I wanted to get home… and hey, I made it in the end. Hope all was well with you….