(Romsa in Northern Sami, nominative case) is a city and municipality in the county of Troms, Norway.

The city of Tromsø was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipalities of Tromsøysund and Ullsfjord, and most of Hillesøy, were merged with Tromsø January 1, 1964.

The name

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The town is named after the island Tromsøya. The first element is the old (uncompounded) name of the island (Norse Trums), the last element is the Danish form ø 'island' (Norwegian øy, finite form øya). The meaning of the old name Trums is unknown.

Coat-of-arms

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The coat-of-arms is from 1870. It shows a reindeer. Current version created by Hallvard Trætteberg (1898–1987) and approved in 1941

(See also the coat-of-arms of Eidfjord, Porsanger, Rendalen, Vadsø and Vågå.)

Geography

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Tromsø is the eighth-largest city in Norway by population, and is home of the world's northernmost university (University of Tromsø), brewery, botanical garden and planetarium.
The city center is located on the east side of the Tromsøya — almost 400 km inside the Arctic Circle at . Suburban areas include Tromsdalen (on the mainland, east of the Tromsøya island), the rest of the Tromsøya island, and the eastern part of the large Kvaløya, west of the Tromsøya Island. Tromsø Bridge and a four laned road tunnel connects the mainland with Tromsøya by road, and, on the western side of the city, Sandnessund Bridge connects Tromsøya island with Kvaløya island.

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Climate

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Tromsø is rather famous in Norway for having a lot of snow in the winter, although this varies a lot from one year to the next. In the winter of 1996–97 a new all-time record was set in April 29 1997 when the meteorological station on top of Tromsøya could — with some difficulty — record 240 cm of snow. The coldest temperature ever recorded is –18.4 °C, and the January average is a mere –4 °C. This is due to the warming effects of the North Atlantic Drift, an extension of the Gulf Stream. The proximity to the sea moderates temperatures; Sommarøy on the west coast of Kvaløya has January average of –1.9 °C.

Summer is rather cool, with a July 24-hr average of 12 °C; daytime temperatures are usually slightly warmer, but vary a lot (from 9 to 25 °C). In the summer of 1972, the temperature reached 30 °C ().

Light and darkness

The geographical location some 350 km north of the Arctic Circle means that Tromsø has both midnight sun and polar night.

The Midnight sun is above the northern horizon from about May 18 to July 26, although the mountains in the north block the view to the Midnight sun a few days, meaning that you can optically see the sun from about May 21 to July 21. Due to the position on top of the globe, the twilight is longer, meaning there is no real darkness between late April and mid August.

The sun remains below the horizon from about November 26 to January 15, but due to the mountains the sun...