Storm Boelo swept across eastern and southern Norway on Sunday, October 25, 2026, leaving thousands of utility customers without power, halting mountain rescue operations, and triggering orange flood alerts along the Rogaland coast.
Power Outages and Structural Damage Across Southern Norway
By Sunday morning, utility map data from Glitre Nett recorded over 3,000 subscribers without electricity, primarily concentrated in Agder and Lunner municipality in Akershus. Lede Nett reported another 2,500 customers experiencing outages across Telemark and Vestfold. The intense weather system also brought severe structural damage and transportation hazards. In Porsgrunn, high winds toppled a construction fence at an industrial site in Langangen, while an uprooted tree blocked a walkway in Langesund and another fell onto a parking lot. Grenland Fire and Rescue deployment leader Kathrine Ånestad noted that crews responded to multiple morning calls, including securing a residential roof in danger of blowing away and clearing blocked drains that caused a stream to overflow its banks along Svanvikvegen outside Porsgrunn.
Coastal Flooding Warnings and Road Hazards
The Norwegian Meteorological Institute issued an orange warning for severely high water levels in Rogaland, with peak flooding expected from Monday morning through Monday afternoon. This follows a yellow warning for gale-force winds from Saturday night into Sunday morning, featuring local gusts reaching 27 to 37 meters per second from the southeast. In Oslo, heavy precipitation created severe standing water on roadways. Oslo Police District operations leader Eirik Sannes reported several minor traffic accidents during the morning hours caused by motorists losing control in deep puddles. Emergency road crews also worked to clear debris elsewhere in the region, including Fjell- og anleggsteknikk dispatching workers to clear blocked drains near Heidelberg’s cement factory in Brevik on riksvei 354, and removing a fallen tree blocking the E18 at Hanekleiva in Holmestrand.
Weather-Bound Hikers Rescued in Western Mountains
On the West Coast, severe turbulence prevented a rescue helicopter from reaching a hiking party of nine individuals requesting assistance in the mountains above Kinsarvik and Lofthus. The group reported that their tents were destroyed and that they were wet and cold, though uninjured. Red Cross personnel and a police dog patrol set out on foot at approximately 08:30 Sunday to intercept them. Rescue leader Eivind Bø confirmed at 09:26 that the ground teams successfully met the hikers, who began descending the mountain on foot with an expected arrival time at lower elevations within an hour.
