Have you damaged the bottom of your car recently, or is your employer considering laying you off temporarily? Blame it on the weather. It hasn’t been this cold for 24 years, according to some.

No compensation

Whilst reports of the most snow for 100 years in parts of the U.K trickle in, Stavanger council continues to fight what looks like a losing battle for the moment against Jack Frost and his pals.

Temperatures in Rogaland this morning were as low as -21C in Kyllingstad, and there was also bad news for motorists in Stavanger. Icy tracks in the road as up to 10cm deep and engine-failures gave Viking rescue service a busy time.

“Some (drivers) sank into the icy tracks with quite a force, and I can see many cars around with loose bottom plates at the moment,” Morten Nesheim, the company’s general manager tells NRK.

But if you were thinking of getting the council to pay for the damage, think again. According to Ine Jortun, one of the Norwegian Automobile Federation’s (NAF) lawyers, the threshold for compensation is high.

“If you don’t tell the road authorities, it’s hard for them to do anything about it,” she says.

Employees at risk

If things are not bad enough if you’re trying to get work, some employers have warned of interim lay-offs because of the cold.

On Tuesday Stangeland Maskin, one of the district’s biggest contractors, had to give 70 of their staff the elbow temporarily because of frozen ground as deep as 40cm.

It turns out that this is just the tip of the iceberg. As well as Stangeland’s gardeners, asphalt, and paving stone workers, Truls Nordahl – director of the Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) for Rogaland – says the cold has hit the transport and building sectors. More than 760 could have already been given their lay-off notice.

And now, the weather

“There’ll be a fresh easterly breeze of approximately 10 metres per second in exposed areas. Between Sunday and Tuesday, we expect east-north-easterly gales in exposed fjord areas, with wind speeds increasing to 12 metres per second.

“Friday and Saturday will be mainly dry, with nice weather for the rest of the week. It will remain cold,” Jan Inge Hansen at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in Oslo tells The Foreigner.

And for those of you going skiing at the weekend, the weathermen have forecast temperatures as low as -26C in Sauda.