Current observation in Bergen: BGO 60.39°N --:-- 1009 hPa

Surface analysis — 06 UTC

We bottle the weather

Isobar is a perfume house in Bergen, often called the rainiest city in Europe. We chase weather, capture the air it leaves behind, and recompose it into fragrance.

Five weathers so far. Synoptic Nº1, out now.

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Forecast discussion · issued by the house

Every scent you remember is tied to a sky. The first rain on hot stone. A warm wind that makes the mountains look close enough to touch. Fog that tastes faintly of iron.

Forecasters read the sky as numbers. Perfumers read it as memory. We do both — then we wait, sometimes for years, for the right weather to arrive.

Collection · 2019 — 2026

Synoptic Nº1

Five weathers, recorded on site and recomposed in our Bergen boathouse. Each bottle carries the exact time, place and pressure of the moment it was caught.

  1. Nº1PetrichorFirst rain after nineteen dry daysBergen · 1004 hPa
  2. Nº2FøhnA warm, dry wind falling off the AlpsAltdorf · 1009 hPa
  3. Nº3BrumeSea fog rolling up a cold Atlantic beachNazaré · 1019 hPa
  4. Nº4GrésilSnow pellets on a windless Arctic morningAbisko · 1013 hPa
  5. Nº5OrageThe minute before a summer thunderstormLocarno · 996 hPa

Nº1 / 05

Petrichor

/ˈpɛtrɪkɔː/ n. The smell of first rain on dry ground.

Nineteen dry days, then rain at dawn on warm granite. We had the pumps running within four minutes of the first drop. The scent lasted eleven.

Observation code: OBS BERGEN 140412Z 18004KT 9999 -RA FEW008 BKN020 14/12 Q1004

Captured
14 Aug 2019 · 06:12
Station
Fløyen, Bergen, NO
Position
60.394°N 5.343°E
Pressure
1004 hPa ↘ falling
Humidity
88 %
Air / stone
14 °C / 21 °C

Sounding · notes by altitude

Top
0–15 min

Geosmin accord · Cold rhubarb · Wet slate

Heart
15 min–3 h

Crushed fern · Orris root

Base
3 h +

Haitian vetiver · Warm granite

Eau de parfum · 50 ml€165

Nº2 / 05

Føhn

/føːn/ n. A warm, dry wind that falls down the lee side of mountains.

The føhn brings headaches, avalanches and impossibly clear views. That afternoon it smelled of hot stone and last summer's hay, lifted out of the barns by the wind.

Observation code: OBS ALTDORF 031440Z 18037G60KT CAVOK 21/M01 Q1009

Captured
3 Mar 2021 · 15:40
Station
Altdorf, Uri, CH
Position
46.880°N 8.644°E
Pressure
1009 hPa → steady
Humidity
23 %
Wind
S 19 m/s, gusts 31

Sounding · notes by altitude

Top
0–15 min

Saffron · Dry ginger

Heart
15 min–3 h

Hay absolute · Larch resin

Base
3 h +

Sun-baked stone · Tonka

Eau de parfum · 50 ml€165

Nº3 / 05

Brume

/bʁym/ n. Sea mist; fog that rises from cold water.

Summer fog in Nazaré arrives like a wall from the sea. Visibility eighty metres. Everything tasted faintly of salt and iron, and the sun was a small white coin. — move to clear the fog

Observation code: OBS NAZARE 220605Z 32008KT 0080 FG VV001 16/16 Q1019

Captured
22 Jul 2022 · 07:05
Station
Praia do Norte, Nazaré, PT
Position
39.602°N 9.071°W
Pressure
1019 hPa ↗ rising
Humidity
99 %
Visibility
80 m

Sounding · notes by altitude

Top
0–15 min

Sea salt · Cold metal

Heart
15 min–3 h

Iris · Ambrette seed

Base
3 h +

Driftwood · White musk

Eau de parfum · 50 ml€165

Nº4 / 05

Grésil

/ɡʁe.zil/ n. Graupel; soft snow pellets that bounce when they land.

At minus fourteen the air smells of almost nothing — which made it the hardest weather we have ever tried to bottle. Three winters, two failed captures, one perfect morning.

Observation code: OBS ABISKO 090830Z 00000KT 2000 GS BKN012 M14/M17 Q1013

Captured
9 Feb 2024 · 09:30
Station
Abisko, Lappland, SE
Position
68.349°N 18.831°E
Pressure
1013 hPa → steady
Humidity
78 %
Air
−14 °C, calm

Sounding · notes by altitude

Top
0–15 min

Aldehydes · Frozen juniper

Heart
15 min–3 h

Pine needle · Cold black tea

Base
3 h +

Birch tar · Clean musk

Eau de parfum · 50 ml€165

Nº5 / 05

Orage

/ɔ.ʁaʒ/ n. A thunderstorm; also, figuratively, a sudden outburst.

Captured in the eighty seconds between the gust front and the first drop: ozone, hot dust, crushed linden. Then the sky over the lake went violet.

Observation code: OBS LOCARNO 181552Z 24012G43KT 9000 VCTS CB020 29/21 Q0996

Captured
18 Jun 2025 · 17:52
Station
Locarno, Ticino, CH
Position
46.170°N 8.799°E
Pressure
996 hPa ↓ falling fast
Humidity
62 %
Air
29 °C → 19 °C in 6 min

Sounding · notes by altitude

Top
0–15 min

Ozone · Black pepper

Heart
15 min–3 h

Linden blossom · Violet leaf

Base
3 h +

Labdanum · Hot dust

Eau de parfum · 50 ml€165

Method

How to catch a weather

  1. 01 — Watch

    We wait for the sky

    Our weather desk runs ensemble forecasts every six hours, looking for rare events. Most never arrive. Some take three winters.

  2. 02 — Chase

    We go to it

    When a forecast hits, a team leaves within the hour with portable pumps and adsorbent tubes. The good part of a weather often lasts minutes.

  3. 03 — Read

    We take it apart

    Back in the lab, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry separates each capture into hundreds of molecules, peak by peak.

  4. 04 — Recompose

    We build it back

    The perfumer rebuilds the air from safe, stable materials — not a photograph of the weather, but the memory of standing in it.

Capture 0147 · Fløyen, Bergen · 14 Aug 2019 06:12 Seven of the 212 compounds in one dawn rain. Move along the traceDrag along the trace to read it.
12.4 min Geosmin Wet soil. Made by soil bacteria; some noses detect it at just five parts per trillion.

Personal forecast

What is your sky today?

Set the barometer to the weather outside your window — or read it from your location — and we will tell you which weather to wear.

1004hPa

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Recommended

Nº1 Petrichor

Falling pressure and wet air: the sky is about to break. Wear the first rain.

    Discover Petrichor

    Discovery set

    The Forecast

    Five 2 ml vials, one for each weather of Synoptic Nº1. Every case is printed with the actual pressure chart for the day it leaves our boathouse — no two are alike.

    • Contents5 × 2 ml eau de parfum
    • Credit€38 back on your first 50 ml
    • ShippingFrom Bergen in 2–3 days, whatever the weather

    €38

    Atelier · Bergen, 60.39°N

    A forecaster
    and a perfumer

    “A forecast is a promise about the air. So is a perfume. We just make ours keep.”

    Ingrid Solvang, co-founder

    Isobar began in 2019 with a phone call. Théo Marchetti, a perfumer trained in Grasse, rang a coastal forecasting office to ask a strange question: when would it next rain on warm stone? Ingrid Solvang, eleven years into night shifts, answered.

    Today Ingrid runs the weather desk, deciding when to chase. Théo turns captures into formulas in a former boathouse on the Bergen waterfront, where it rains about two hundred days a year. Neither of them owns an umbrella.

    Weathers chased since 2019
    0
    Kept and released
    0
    Compounds in one dawn rain
    0
    Minutes from forecast to pump
    0
    2026-09-28 04:50Z · Stad peninsula · gale 24 m/s · tube 0391 — discarded, diesel from a trawler 2026-09-14 21:10Z · Fløyen · first autumn storm · tube 0388 — kept for analysis 2026-08-30 13:02Z · Hardangervidda · hail 8 mm · tube 0384 — promising 2026-08-02 05:40Z · Nazaré · fog lifting · tube 0379 — duplicate of Nº3 2026-07-19 16:25Z · Ticino · dry lightning · tube 0371 — too faint 2026-06-21 23:58Z · Lofoten · midnight sun after rain · tube 0366 — under study for Nº6

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