The 984-square-kilometre (380 sq mi) municipality is the 118th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Notodden is the 94th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 13,025. The municipality's population density is 14.3 inhabitants per square kilometre (37/sq mi) and its population has increased by 4.2% over the previous 10-year period.[5][6]
On 1 January 1913, the newly-designated kjøpstad (town) of Notodden (population: 4,821) was separated from Heddal Municipality to form a separate self-governing town as an enclave within Heddal Municipality. This left Heddal with 2,890 residents. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, Heddal Municipality was dissolved and the following areas were merged to form a new, larger Notodden Municipality:[7]
The municipality (originally the town) is named after a small cotter's farmstead (husmannsplass) located on the old Tinne farm since this was the original site of the town (near the mouth of the river Tinnelva at the lake Heddalsvatnet). The first element is derived from the word nót which means "to fish using a seine". The last element is the definite singular form of odde which means "headland". Thus it is a "headland for net fishing".[4]
Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 11 August 1939. The official blazon is "Azure, a pale wavy and four lightning bolts in saltireargent" (Norwegian: På blå bunn en loddrett sølvelv som sender lynstråler av sølv til begge sider). This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is a wavy vertical bar and four lightning bolts emanating from the centre and making an X-shape. The charge has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The design symbolizes that Notodden was created by the exploitation of hydroelectric power on the river Tinnelva when Norsk Hydro started its operations with saltpeter production and power development in 1905. The vertical bar represents the Tinnfoss waterfall along the river and the lightning bolts represent electricity. The arms were designed by Jens Høibø. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.[8][9]
The municipal council(Kommunestyre) of Notodden is made up of 41 representatives that are elected to four-year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.
The municipality is located in Aust-Telemark, along the border with Buskerud. Notodden Municipality includes the lands between the lakes Tinnsjå and Heddalsvatnet lake. The rivers Tinnelva and Heddøla both run through the municipality. The Blefjell mountains are located in the northern part of the municipality.
Climate
Notodden has a humid continental climate (Dfb). Situated inland at low altitude in the Telemark region, is one of the warmer towns in Norway in summer, but winters can be cold. The weather station at Notodden Airport has been recording since March 1970 (temperature and wind speed). Precipitation data is from a different station in Notodden. The all-time high temperature 33.3 °C (91.9 °F) was recorded on 27 July 2018.
Climate data for Notodden 1991–2020 (20 m, precipitation days 1961–90, extremes 2002–2020)
In 2008, the Notodden council decided to end the twin city agreements with Ilisalmi, Nyköping, and Stelle. At the same time Suwałki was approved as a new twin city.[41][42]