Springtime

I’m in London at the moment, which makes it clearer to me that spring has arrived, or at least should have. Back home in Norway, it was still sub-freezing, but there have been warmer days, but the change of season doesn’t quite sink in until the warmth has managed to dispel the snow.

Still, there are signs that the winter is ending, and after a hard one, the change can be slightly traumatic. This means avalanche watch has been in effect across much of Norway,

Solving the ice rings – part three of the hunt for a Norwegian meteorite

After learning that the odd formations on the small lake near Bergen reminded a man of science of crop circles, newspaper Bergens Tidende made the obvious logical leap from a sales point of view, and immediately contacted one of Norway’s leading figures in crop circle … circles.

Eva Marie Brekkestø had a book being published a few days later, called Crop circles – Miracle of the field, and there she has written about mysterious patterns appearing on frozen ponds and lakes as well as in more familiar settings.

“We know of other fantastic examples

Ice mystery

Our story continues.

When trying to identify this odd pattern in Norway’s winter ice, for some reason the first two suspects were meteorite fragments and crop circles. Tabloid journalism aside, this was only slightly silly – a meteorite had likely fallen and scattered across Norway. What followed, no matter the extent of your skeptical nature, is a good exercise in Fortean studies, one of my favorite topics.

Yesterday’s post covered

Wanted – blazing meteor/ite

There are two things being sought here in Norway, and the meteor/meteorite distinction is not just to keep sticklers for accuracy at bay. A bolide – large blazing and often explosive meteor – was spotted over Scandinavia just over a week ago. Astronomers want to find witnesses, as they strongly suspect the meteorite (the surviving bits that make it to the ground) landed in Norway.

But a straightforward science story rarely makes it to press in this day and age without a few detours through speculative territory, and this one was no exception. No, not the UFO circuit, but … crop circles. But let’s start at the beginning and see if that helps.

Odd jobs

I had never come across a particularly strange winter job before. For some reason, they either seem to be non-seasonal, or common in the summer, when there are plenty of students to be enticed into doing something bizarre. In fact, one of my favorite stories from the old Aftenposten News in English service was precisely this, a look at the weirdest summer job in the country.

Then a few days ago, I spotted something I had never seen before; an icicle assassin. Even better, the story came with video.

Winter wonderland

Norway’s best-selling daily newspaper, the tabloid VG, provided much cold-related amusement today. First, they had a panel of experts online fielding reader questions about coping with the widest assortment of freezing weather problems imaginable. Then they had one of the most ridiculous articles plus poll I have seen in ages.

As temperatures continue to supply baffled readers with worries about how to handle -20C, -30C and -40C chills, the weather got so cold in Røros,