Referring to challenges of a global nature, climate change may well be a super-wicked problem. Climate change nevertheless poses local and regional challenges that public authorities must handle on a much smaller scale. In this article, the wicked characteristics of local climate adaptation and preparedness for climate-related events and the challenges posed for governance capacity are in focus. The analyses build on data about the activities of and interactions between municipalities and state agencies in adaptation and preparedness work in western Norway. The main findings are that a) public actors, through their actions and interactions, perspectives and experiences across sectors and governance levels, influence the degree to which climate adaptation and preparedness comes across as wicked. Thus, b) the presence and degree of a certain small-scale wickedness is potentially amplified by the involved actors, which in turn c) does pose challenges for governance capacity. The wicked characteristics of climate adaptation and preparedness, and the nature of capacity challenges, have properties of variability across temporal distinctions, spatial scales and governance levels that are contingent on organizational action and choice.