Fauske
| Fauske kommune | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| — Municipality — | |||
 |
|||
|
|||
 |
|||
| Coordinates: 67°13′14″N 15°48′31″E / 67.22056°N 15.80861°ECoordinates: 67°13′14″N 15°48′31″E / 67.22056°N 15.80861°E | |||
| Country | Norway | ||
| County | Nordland | ||
| District | Salten | ||
| Administrative centre | Fauske | ||
| Government | |||
| • Mayor (2007) | Odd Henriksen (H) | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 1,210 km2 (470 sq mi) | ||
| • Land | 1,109 km2 (428 sq mi) | ||
| Area rank | 82 in Norway | ||
| Population (2004) | |||
| • Total | 9,627 | ||
| • Rank | 103 in Norway | ||
| • Density | 9/km2 (20/sq mi) | ||
| • Change (10 years) | -2.7 % | ||
| Demonym | Fauskeværing[1] | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| ISO 3166 code | NO-1841 | ||
| Official language form | Bokmål | ||
| Website | www.fauske.kommune.no | ||
|
|
|||
Fauske (help·info) is a town and municipality located in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Salten region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Fauske with approximately 6,000 inhabitants.
Fauske was separated from the municipality of Skjerstad on 1 January 1905. Township was declared in 1998. The town is located on the northern shore of Skjerstadfjorden. The municipality borders Sweden in the east and the municipalities of Sørfold to the north, Bodø to the west, and Saltdal to the southeast.
Contents |
[edit] General information
[edit] Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Fauske farm (Old Norse: Fauskar), since the first church was built there (in 1866). The name is the plural form of fauskr which means "old and rotten tree".
[edit] Coat-of-arms
The coat-of-arms is from modern times (1988). The arms show a reef knot to represent Fauske as a center of commerce and transportation.
[edit] Economy
Several marble quarries are located in the municipality. The marble is exported to many countries, where it can be observed in many monumental buildings, among them the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. There are also dolostone quarries in Fauske, as well as some agriculture. Salten Kraftsamband and Fauske Lysverk are important employers in Fauske. The town is a commercial centre for parts of the inland areas of Salten, and has hotel and camping facilities. FK Fauske/Sprint is the local soccer team. In earlier days, mining in Sulitjelma was very important.
[edit] Transportation
Photo: Lars Røed Hansen
The Nordlandsbanen railroad passes through the municipality, reaching Bodø west of Fauske. Travellers going further north usually leave the train in Fauske, and travel by express bus to Narvik or further, using European route E6 which goes through the center of Fauske. The E6 from Mo i Rana north to Fauske crosses over Saltfjellet, and the E6 further north to Narvik also goes through very rugged terrain; these are among the most scenic drives in Norway, although there are many tunnels in the Sørfold area. The Norwegian national road Rv 80 to Bodø, 62 km to the west, departs from E6 in the centre of Fauske.
[edit] Nature
There are two large glaciers in Fauske: Blåmannsisen and Sulitjelmaisen; covering about 14% of the municipality. The highest mountain is Suliskongen at 1,907 metres (6,257 ft) above sea level. There are many lakes in the municipality, such as Langvatnet, Låmivatnet, and Nedrevatnet.
Junkerdal National Park and Sjunkhatten National Park are partly located in Fauske.[2] Sulitjelma, located 44 km by road east of Fauske, is a good starting point for hiking in the mountains and hikes to the glaciers. There are several DNT lodges in this area. There are many nature reserves in the municipality, such as Veten nature reserve with calcareous pine forest and a rich understory[3] and Fauskeeidet wetland area with rich bird life and observation tower.[4] There are several caves in the municipality. The fairly easy accessible Svarthamarhola (Svarthamar cave) is one of the largest caves in northern Europe, also hosting one of the worlds most northerly bat colonies.[5]
[edit] Climate
Fauske is located inside the Arctic circle and has 24-hr of daylight from early May to the beginning of August, with midnight sun from the beginning of June to the second week of July. Average 24-hour temperatures in Fauske is below freezing from mid-November to the last part of March, but the ice free fjord moderates winter temperatures. Summer starts in June with moderate summer temperatures lasting until early September. Precipitation is heaviest from September to December (usually as snow in December); average annual precipitation is 1040 mm. Daytime temperatures are usually significantly warmer than the 24-hr average from March to September, while there is very little diurnal temperature variation from November to early February as the sun is very low or below the horizon all day. However, temperatures varies considerably with the weather; there might be cool westerlies with 10°C and rain both night and day in July, and the next day might be sunny with daytime temperature reaching 25°C. Southwesterlies can bring thaws anytime in winter, but not in the mountains, which usually get large amounts of snow in winter - the main reason for the large glaciers and the hydropower in the area.
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly 24-hr average (°C) | -4.1 | -3.6 | -1.7 | 1.9 | 7.3 | 11.1 | 13.0 | 12.5 | 8.6 | 4.4 | -0.1 | -2.8 | |
| Average precipitation (mm) | 98 | 81 | 75 | 53 | 45 | 53 | 78 | 79 | 110 | 147 | 105 | 116 | |
| Source: Norwegian Meteorological Institute. All data is for the town of Fauske (14 meters amsl) during 1961-1990; temperatures have tended to be warmer in recent years. | |||||||||||||
[edit] Notable residents
- The authors Dag Ove Johansen, Trine Angelsen and Karin Risvoll live in the municipality.
- The singers "Fattern" and Christel Alsos both grew up and lived in Fauske before they left for higher education and to pursue solo-careers.
- Simon Slåttvik (born 24 July 1917 in Valnesfjord) is a wellknown skiier in the Nordic combined event who won a gold medal during the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo.
- Alexander Os in biathlon.
- Dag Sigurdson senior international civil servant with the United Nation's High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
[edit] References
- ^ "Personnemningar til stadnamn i Noreg" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet. http://www.sprakrad.no/nb-no/Sprakhjelp/Rettskrivning_Ordboeker/Innbyggjarnamn/.
- ^ "Junkerdal Nasjonalpark". http://www.dirnat.no/junkerdal. Retrieved 2008-11-20.[dead link] (Norwegian)
- ^ "Veten naturreservat". http://nordland.miljostatus.no/msf_themepage.aspx?m=1705#4572. Retrieved 2008-11-20. (Norwegian)
- ^ "Fauskeeidet naturreservat". http://nordland.miljostatus.no/msf_themepage.aspx?m=1560#8218. Retrieved 2008-11-20. (Norwegian)
- ^ "Svarthammarhola cave research". http://www.speleo.no/hellas2005/Svarthamar_Lauritzen_et_al-Athen2005_ref64.pdf. Retrieved 2008-12-28.
[edit] External links
Media related to Fauske at Wikimedia Commons- Weather forecast and statistics for Fauske in english
Media related to
|
|||||||
