Lisø PhD Dissertation Manuscript - NTNU

Figure 1 Climate index map for Norway: relative potential for decay in Norwegian wood
structures based on Scheffer’s climate index formula. Weather data for the reference 30-year
period 1961–1990 is used.
The highest annual temperatures in Norway can be found in the coastal areas of the
southern and western part of the country. When excluding uninhabited mountain
areas, the coldest area throughout the year is the Finnmark Plateau. The largest normal
annual precipitation is found some miles from the coast of Western Norway. The
inner part of Østlandet, the Finnmark Plateau, and some smaller areas near the
Swedish border, are all lee areas in relation to the large weather systems mainly
coming from the west. Common for these areas is the low annual precipitation and
that showery precipitation during summer is the largest contributor. As can be seen
from Figure 1, the two northernmost counties (Tromsø and Finnmark), some areas in
Nordland County near the Swedish border and the mountainous areas in southern
Norway have the least favourable conditions for decay. Medium decay risk is found in
the remaining and most densely populated parts of the country, except for the exposed
coastal areas of the western part of the country where climate conditions most likely
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