or (lit. "Whale Island") is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

Tromsø Municipality Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies in Northern Norway. The municipality is the 21s ...

Troms og Finnmark Troms og Finnmark (; sme, Romsa ja Finnmárku ; fkv, Tromssa ja Finmarkku; fi, Tromssa ja Finnmark, lit. Troms and Finnmark in English), is a county in northern Norway that was established on 1 January 2020 as the result of a regional reform. ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

. At , it is the fifth largest island in mainland

. It is connected to the neighboring island of

Tromsøya or is an island in Tromsø Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. It lies in the Tromsøysundet strait between the mainland and the larger island of Kvaløya. The city of Tromsø is located on the island, which has 39,882 resident ...

to the east by the Sandnessund Bridge, to the island of

Ringvassøya or is a large island in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. It is divided between the municipalities of Tromsø and Karlsøy. Several islands surround Ringvassøya including Kvaløya to the south; Reinøya and Karlsøya to the east; Vannøya ...

to the north by the sub-sea Kvalsund Tunnel, to the small island of Sommarøya to the west by the Sommarøy Bridge, and to the mainland to the south by the

Rya Tunnel The Rya Tunnel ( no, Ryaforbindelsen or ) is a subsea road tunnel in Tromsø Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The tunnel links the island of Kvaløya to the mainland Malangshalvøya peninsula. Located along Norwegian County Roa ...

. The island of Sommarøy, on the southwest coast, is a popular recreation area with magnificent coastal scenery.

Geography

Kvaløya is a mountainous island, with at least ten mountains higher than , and three reaching an elevation of more than ; of which the highest is

Store Blåmann Store Blåmann or Blåmannen is a mountain in Tromsø Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the wes ...

(''big blueman'' at , can be climbed without climbing equipment, last part is steep). There are also several small

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Icel ...

s, almost dividing the island in two or three parts: Kaldfjorden,

Ersfjorden Ersfjorden is a fjord in the Tromsø municipality of Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandina ...

, and Kattfjorden. The Rystraumen is a tidal current in the Straumsfjorden strait separating Kvaløya from the mainland to the south. Near this current, on the Kvaløya side, is ''Straumhella'' ( from the city), a popular recreation area with good fishing opportunities. Ryøya is an island in the midst of Rystraumen, formerly home to a small population of musk oxen that lived in the

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family (biology), family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanic ...

forest. The last musk ox, known as Alma, was discovered dead in 2013; an autopsy revealed that she had plastic in her stomach. Someone had left the rings of a beer six-pack behind on the island and Alma was found to have eaten them.

Demography

Approximately 13,000 people live on Kvaløya, most of them on the eastern side near Kvaløysletta (which constitutes a suburban area of the city of Tromsø) near the Sandnessund Bridge.

Climate

According to official climate statistics, the west coast of Kvaløya, facing the open ocean, is the warmest part of Tromsø municipality. The weather station at Sommarøy on the west coast has 24-hr averages of in January, in July and a mean annual temperature of , while annual precipitation is .

Media gallery

Skulsfjord troms norway.jpg, The mountains of Kvaløya seen from Skulsfjord Midday on Kvaløya.JPG, Midday twilight on Kvaløya in winter Ersfjorden 2012.JPG, View of the Ersfjorden Rekvik på Kvarløya - P1.jpg, Rekvik village on Kvaløya Tromsö IMG 3233 Kvalöya Sandnessundet.JPG, Tromsøya (right) and Kvaløya (left) 37663 Skavberget 3. Rock carvings at Tromsø..jpg, Rock carvings at Skavberget Kaldfjord, Tromsø (2014).jpg, Village of Kaldfjord Kvaloysletta kvaloya tromso.JPG, Kvaløysletta

References

External links