SNOW PROBLEMS IN NORWAY

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27989, 8 June 1956, Page 13

SNOW PROBLEMS IN NORWAY

Special Study Made By Scientists

INJURY, DAMAGE, AND DELAY

(From a Reuter Correspondent) OSLO

After one of the worst winters for many years, particularly for snow and avalanches, Norwegian scientists are now making a thorough study of the many problems which snowy winters bring to northern lands. Apart from the really serious catastrophes—2o persons in North Norway lost their lives in avalanches one night in March —snow causes injury, damage and delay in many other ways and costs the Norwegian Government and the local authorities huge sums every year. Snow falls each year in varying quantities all over Norway. In most parts, except in mild winters along the south and west coast, it lies on the ground from around Christmas until well after Easter, and even longer further north and in the higher mountains.

But snow is not just snow in Norway. The problems change according to the kind of snow, the temperature both of the air. and of the ground when it falls, whether it is windy or not, and what the weather is like after each snowfall. The condition of the snow depends upon how many times it has fallen during the winter, in what layers, how long between each snowfall, and on many other factors.

Experienced skiers will tell you that one of the most difficult problems in ski-racing is to decide what kind of snow surface there is at any given time or place. For racing skiers have a number of different waxes to use on the soles of their skis to ensure smooth sliding on the various types of snow which they may encounter. Snow can be “dry” and powdery like icing sugar, or it can be wet and heavy, full of water. It can be coarse like granulated sugar, or soft as cotton wool. And it can have an icy crust with soft or wet snow just beneath—or vice versa. Wherever snow occurs in Norway it brings with it different problems for different families. In the towns, streets and pavements have to be cleared or smoothed for cars and pedestrians. Banks of snow heaped in the gutters by the snowploughs have to be carted away. Drains have to be kept open in case of a thaw

If warm days and cold nights result in an icy surface, sand must be strewn.

The Roads Department must mobilise snowploughs to clear the country roads. The railways must fix snowploughs to their locomotives and watch for avalanches on mountain tracks. The householder may have to dig a passage from his front door to the road every morning. And snow on roofs must also be watched. If it becomes too thick, it must be cleared because the weight can break down the roof, and if it is wet and slippery, it may suddenly fall like a miniature avalanche burying unsuspecting pedestrians in the street. Avalanche Anxieties For people Hying in the valley villages, nestling in the shelter of the mountains, there is the constant problem of what is likely to start an avalanche. Winter snows may come and go for years without there being any need for anxiety. Then, suddenly, some not quite accountable combination of wind and weather, temperature and snow composition, will send the white masses roaring down the hillside and bringing death and destruction in their wake.

Every year, hundreds of lesser avalanches occur in lonely mountain districts without any harm being done, beyond perhaps the temporary blocking of roads or rail tracks. But even the clearing of these involve Norway in huge expenditure every year. A number of mountain roads have to be closed every winter because the task of keeping them clear of snow is technically and economically too great On the mountain railway traqks. large sums of money have been spent on building tunnels, or timbered shelters to prevent the line from getting irrevocably blocked. Hitherto, many different Norwegian institutions have been engaged on research into the snow problem, eacn from their own particular point of view.

In the middle of April this year, representatives of a number of these organisations got together to exchange views on their common problem and to discuss methods of co-ordinating their work and the results of their studies. Those represented at the meeting were: the Roads Department, the State Railways, the Waterways Board, the Ministry of Agriculture, the University of Oslo, the Technical College in Trondheim, the Defence Research Institute, the Polar Institute, the Meteorological Institute, and the Council for Technical and Natural Science Research. Many of them would like to see a

special institute for snow research established. The snow disasters this year make it imperative that research into snow problems be intensified in future, they argued. “We need a centre for the basic research into snow conditions so that it is not necessary for each one of us to start at the beginning in investigating the snow problem from our own particular aspect,” said Mr Gunnar Ramsli. the Ministry of Agriculture’s avalanche expert, after the meeting. The lack of funds and of skilled personnel make the establishment of a Snow Research Institute impracticable at present. For the time being it was agreed that each of the organisations concerned should go ahead with the study of the snow problem and maintain the best possible contact with one another.