Weather observations at Lungegård Hospital

Weather observations were carried out daily at Lungegård Hospital from 1850 to 1853, when the oldest hospital burned down, and then later from 1860 until at least 1892, when the last record of weather observations from the hospital ends. Presumably, observations were made and records kept until the hospital closed in 1895. The weather observations were then carried out at Pleiestiftelsen Hospital, where it’s thought they continued until 1926. The observations were recorded in dedicated registers.

We know little about the background of the weather observations. At the end of the 19th century, the observations were delivered each day to Bergens Tidende, which published them in the newspaper. This may have also been done at an earlier time too, and perhaps to other newspapers. There may also have been a scientific interest in carrying out the observations.

In the oldest pictures of the hospital, you can see a stand on the wall outside one of the windows on the main facade of the central wing. It looks similar to the thermometer and hygrometer stand that is still preserved at Pleiestiftelsen Hospital. It is possible that it is the same stand, and that it was transferred from Lungegård Hospital to Pleiestiftelsen when the former institution closed down.

The weather observation records from Lungegård Hospital are available in the Digital Archive, where you can read about the weather in Bergen in the latter half of the 19th century. Most of them are printed records of such observations, while the oldest of them are handwritten. They generally list barometer readings, temperature, humidity, precipitation and observations of ‘wind and weather.’

In some of them, additional observations are entered on the back, such as thunder and lightning or the northern lights. In 1871 and 1872, there are several sightings and descriptions of northern lights. At quarter to ten on the evening of 18 April 1871, for example, there was a ‘Magnificent display of Northern Lights across almost the whole sky’ with ‘great columns of blazing rays towards the Zenith’. Did any of the patients at the hospital see the beautiful Northern Lights that night?