Touring in Spring Sweden,Norway

[iviehoff]

In the south of Norway, the best weather can be in May.
...The last couple of summers it has been rainy in July. ... A couple of people have jokingly told me that the best time to visit Norway is any time except July and and August. Most Norwegians take their summer holidays during that period and say the weather is notoriously bad.
...
I'm planning this in September.

It is indeed true that in most parts of Norway, just as in GB, July/August is wetter than April/June.

However September/November is, on average, much the wettest time of year, and September was horrendously wet in West Norway last year - 408mm of rain in the month in Bergen, over twice the rain of August or July, as the link I already provided for Bergen climate stats shows.

So it is folly to think of July/August as being the most unpleasant time of year. It is clearly better than the winter, which is long and freezing,and the autumn which is exceedingly soggy and not very warm. So you have a choice between the (brief) spring and (brief) summer; the former is drier but colder, and comes later than you might think.

[Vorpal]

Thank you Vorpal, the information is very useful in our decision making. Hope have a great tour in September. Is that on a tourer or mountain bike?

I will probably do it on my hybrid. I'm not certain yet what tyres I will use.

[PJ520]

Last May I tried to do the North Sea Cycleway from North to South starting in Bergen. It was hell, a lot of the route in Norway is single track (I was on a Trek 520 w/700X32 tyres), Strong headwinds all the way, cold and very wet. if I'd done my homework I should perhaps have foreseen the weather. Perhaps not if the OP is right about May. One cool thing: in Norway and Sweden you can camp anywhere more than 100m from a dwelling. I gave up on staggeringly expensive Norway and caught the staggeringly expensive train (they charge a half fare for your bike) to Kristiansand then the ferry to Denmark, which was somewhat better, a bit cheaper, more hostels and better trails but still howling headwinds. A seafaring friend pointed out to me that Bergen is on a higher latitude, 60.38, than Juneau, Alaska, 58.35, which is anything but balmy in May. Of course if you are heading S to N with a howling tailwind everything will look a lot better until you leave something behind and have to go back for it. Alas there is no longer a ferry from Bergen to Orkney which was why I was attempting the NSCW from N to S. Best of luck.

[iviehoff]

Last May I tried to do the North Sea Cycleway from North to South starting in Bergen. It was hell, ..., cold and very wet. if I'd done my homework I should perhaps have foreseen the weather. Perhaps not if the OP is right about May.

Last May was close to averagely wet in Bergen, as the link I gave previously shows. However the 117mm of rain in May, nearly 5 inches, which they had, would be a very wet May in all but the wettest corners of GB, even record-breakingly so. Of course there are wet weeks and dry weeks, and you may have had the wet week rather than the dry week. So even a relatively dry month in Western Norway is rather wet by GB standards. Though this was only just over half of the 202mm they had in August and the 408mm in September was twice that again. (But Bergen is a lot wetter than inland valleys, or indeed Trondheim and further north.)

This is point: if you do go in spring, it will still rain from time to time, it may even rain all week from time to time, and you are likely to be horribly cold and wet when it does so. At least in summer, even if it is wetter, it won't be so cold.

[Vorpal]

Last May I tried to do the North Sea Cycleway from North to South starting in Bergen. It was hell, a lot of the route in Norway is single track (I was on a Trek 520 w/700X32 tyres), Strong headwinds all the way, cold and very wet. if I'd done my homework I should perhaps have foreseen the weather. Perhaps not if the OP is right about May. One cool thing: in Norway and Sweden you can camp anywhere more than 100m from a dwelling. I gave up on staggeringly expensive Norway and caught the staggeringly expensive train (they charge a half fare for your bike) to Kristiansand then the ferry to Denmark, which was somewhat better, a bit cheaper, more hostels and better trails but still howling headwinds. A seafaring friend pointed out to me that Bergen is on a higher latitude, 60.38, than Juneau, Alaska, 58.35, which is anything but balmy in May. Of course if you are heading S to N with a howling tailwind everything will look a lot better until you leave something behind and have to go back for it. Alas there is no longer a ferry from Bergen to Orkney which was why I was attempting the NSCW from N to S. Best of luck.

In Norway at least, campers must be more than 150 m from a dwelling. And they may not camp on cultivated land. But otherwise, everyone has access to the land for recreation. There are very many casual camping places in Norway, and outside of towns and cities, it's not to hard to find a good place to camp.

As regards the weather last year, in the east of Norway, May was a very good weather month.

http://www.tranby365.net/Grindene/2012_05.TXT is from an independent weather station about 25 km southwest of Oslo, where the highest temperature of the year was in May. There were 13 days when it rained at all (several of those, it rained only at night, and a couple more just had a couple of brief, squals before returnign to sunny weather) and very little wind. I got more sun in May than the whole of the summer.

Bergen, on the other hand is reputed to be the wettest place in Norway. And last year was one of the wettest on record, so it's hardly fair to say that is exemplar of Norwegian weather. Weather varies hugely from one part of Norway to another; more even than in different parts of the UK.

[PJ520]

last year was one of the wettest on record,

I can believe that. I waited four days for a break in the weather in Bergen and eventually took the ferry to Stavanger. Where it rained like hell.

[iviehoff]

There are very many casual camping places in Norway, and outside of towns and cities, it's not to hard to find a good place to camp.

Some parts of thh country it is fairly easy. But in some other parts, I have found it very difficult to find good places to wild camp. The trouble is that flat, dry, non-rocky bits of land, not covered in tall vegetation, are in short supply in many areas, and tend to be precisely the locations that are occupied by houses and cultivation. And I have seen regularly signs saying "Welcome to XXXX, population 2000", and found that it was yet another ribbon development that managed to spread itself out along the road for about 30km with no spot more than 150m from a house or summercabin. (Though I didn't feel too worried if it was a summercabin I was camping a bit close to - it seems like everyone in Norway has a summercabin, there are so many). And when you get to places where houses are built on stilts over rocks, you realise you are going to be very lucky to find anywhere at all.

[cowplum]

Having lived in Sweden for the past two years I can tell you the weather is as unpredictable as the UK! I lived c. 60 km north of Stockholm, in 2010 we had a month of beautiful sunshine with 20 C in March, in 2011 we had a week of light snow & frost in April. If you go during the spring I would recommend Denmark, Southern Sweden and the islands of Oland and Gotland - especially Gotland. Although the teraine in these areas is quite flat, the south of Norway might be okay during spring if you fancy proper mountians. I can only talk from my own experience, but the camp site down the road from me was open and had people camping the whole year round.

Lycka till!