Tromsø Warning or Danger Tips by FletteMette

Tromsø might get the first snowfall some time in the early autumn - usually in September - and the last snow often melts during May. In the end of april 1997 there was still a record-breaking 240 cm of snow on the ground...!

With the amount of snow this town gets, you would imagine the authorities knew how to deal with snowy, slippery roads and pavements - but snow-clearing the roads doesn't seem to be high on their priority list - and neither does clearing, gritting or salting the pavements...!

Being a pedestrian in Tromsø during winter frequently means having the choice of wading through unbelievable amounts of snow because the pavements haven't been cleared, or walking in the road and risk being hit by a car. Drivers in Norway are usually very considerate - but not so in Tromsø! The drivers in Tromsø all seem to enjoy scaring the crap out of any pedestrians they might encounter - they never ever give a person walking along the icy, slippery road any space, and they seem to think zebra crossings are only meant as decorations. Aaaaaaaargh!!!!!!

Oh well, felt good to get that out of my system...

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Tromsø gets, as mentioned before, a quite impressive amount of snow practically every winter (between September and April, that is) - and the sight of people shoveling the white stuff off of roofs is not uncommon. (Wet snow is very heavy - and excessive amounts of snow might cause the roof to cave in...) If you look up, you'll notice huge icicles hanging off the edges of many roofs - and eventually all this ice and snow has to fall down... Don't linger underneath large icicles, or wet snow that looks like it's about to slide off a roof...;o)

On every other house in Tromsø there are signs reading :"Fare for takras". Translated into English this would be something like: "Don't hang around here, or you're in danger of getting knocked unconscious and being rushed to hospital after having been hit with huge chunks of ice or massive amounts of snow when it suddenly decides to fall off my roof"...;o) (And if you're really unlucky you might have a snow shoveling guy crashing down on you as well...:op)

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