I made this photo two weeks ago in Solberget and I think it’s a nice contrast to my last blog article here. Both photos show the Swedish winter but there are quite different. I like both the cold and sunny type of winter as snow fall.
What do you prefer?
Some sunrises are more intense than others. Today I was lucky to witness a really intense and colourful sunrise in Skelleftehamn and even had the time to find a nice place.
Even the larger bays of the Baltic Sea have been frozen up within the last two days, but the open sea is still free of ice. Only at the shore the typical early-winter pancake ice floes drift on top of the tiny waves, turning and rotating. The ice seems to mirror the bright sunrise colours even more intense than the water and the snow glowed in an almost pink shade.
I have stopped counting the times I was in Solberget, the beautiful wilderness retreat in Swedish Lapland. This time I was asked if I want to join a three day first aid course in Solberget. Since my last one was long ago I accepted gladly.
The course, arranged by the German Outdoorschule Süd, was both intense and fantastic and I’m glad that I was able to participate. I stayed another day after the course to make a ski tour. It has snowed quite a lot in Lapland in November and round about 60 cm of snow covered the forest soil. I started the tour at 8:30 – an hour before sun rise. The air was crisp and cold with temperatures round -15 °C. I borrowed a pair of wooden Tegsnäs skis. They are long and broad and fit to every boot which makes them ideal for the powdery snow in the Northern forests. I crossed the street and entered the narrow forest path that leads to the hill which bears the same name as the wilderness retreat: Solberget – the Sunmountain. I crossed the Solbergsvägen, which was covered with a half metre of snow and soon went slightly uphill through the old forest with its mighty spruce and pine trees.
Even though I didn’t take the smoothest way up it didn’t take long until I arrived at the top of the Solberget, which is 459 meters above sea level. I ignored the cozy mountain hut and went straight to the old fire lookout tower which provides a unique 360 degree view over the landscape.
As fastly as I arrived at the tower as slowly I climbed it, since the handrails and the steps of the three ladders were covered with a thick layer of hard and crusty snow. Finally I was on the top of the tower, just in time to see the sun rising above the hilly horizon.
I stayed on the tower for more than an hour, happy to see the snow covered trees in the warm and ever-changing light of the low hanging winter sun. First the sun got free of the clouds and started to illuminate more and more of the scenery. The colours changed from a pale pink to shades of orange and many other colours I don’t have any name for. After a while a cloud layer approached from the north changing the mood of the landscape again. At the end almost the whole landscape was shadowy beside of the fog that still hung above the swampy areas in the southwest.
Finally the sun vanished behind the cloud layer. I climbed down the three ladders of the tower and continued my ski tour. First I headed southeast, then I turned more and more to the right while I descended the hill. After a while (and a bit of squeezing through the pathless thickets) I reached the Solbergsvägen again, however more in the south. This part of the path was completely untouched beside of a track of a hare that you still could guess under the fresh snow of the last day.
After a while I came to the turn-off to the swamp Solmyran which I followed a bit. The sun was low again and illuminated the snow in bright orange colours, while the snow in the shadows looked more blueish. There are many colours in winter, you just have to go out to spot them.
I can highly recommend both a stay at Solberget and the first aid courses of the Outdoorschule Süd. In February you can combine the two, if you can speak and understand German.
This article is part of the series “2016-11: #snowember16”.
It was round two weeks ago, that Västerbotten, and especially Skelleftehamn got a lot of snow, more than 70 centimetres within four days. Such had happened before at least four times since I moved to this place but never so early.
Anyway, I love winter and was very happy to get it so soon. Sad to say, it was only an intermezzo. It became cold for two days the last weekend, when I tried canoeing but since then it has been quite warm and most of the precipitation came as rain that melted much of the beautiful snow away.
Two weeks ago the fence in the backyard was fully submerged in the snow, not it is completely visible again.
I definitely prefer the first. Since the peak of 76 cm in my backyard thirteen days ago the snow cover become less and less deep. Today I measured 23 cm, which is less than a third of the former depth.
It is still quite warm and the global weather constellation is quite special: At the North Pole it’s 20 °C warmer than usual (and there’s full polar night!), whereas Siberia and Mongolia have witnessed an early cold wave with temperatures below -30 °C, partly below -40 °C.
How will the swedish winter 2016/17 will be? Too warm or freezing cold? Sleet and rain or masses of snow? Well, we’ll see … . What do you think?
This article is part of the series “2016-11: #snowember16”.
Last night it snowed another 15 cm, increasing the snow depth in my backyard to 76 cm and finally the fence in my backgard was gone, hidden by the snow.
You see, that the picture looks a bit hazy? That’s because it snowed still a lot, when I made this picture this morning at 6 o’clock. You see that blending light to the right of the house? It’s a tractor that already had started to plough away the snow.
Some hours later Annika and I took the car to Bureå – another “snow pocket” nearby. As a matter of fact I was curious, if there was even more snow as here in Skelleftehamn.
Finally I could take a picture of the beautiful pavilion Åbacka paviljong which lies near Bureå on the other side of the E4. A huge pile of snow left by a tractor came in handy to get a higher perspective.
And we saw buried cars. And half buried tractors, and really buried cars, and a quite snowed in bicycle.
I heard from some people living in Bureå, that at least one meter of snow has fallen, but I couldn’t find such places in town. I seemed to be as much snow as home, perhaps a bit more.
When we took a detour, left Bureå and headed to Burvik over the hill Bureberget (altitude: 99 meters!) the snow walls at the sides of the road increased. I stopped the car on the side of the street and just took some steps into the forest. Here the snow was really much deeper, I should say round 110 cm! Here seems to be Bureå’s “snow center”.
I left Annika at the bus station and took the E4 to Skellefteå where I had a meeting at one o’clock. Well, I tried to take the E4, but from the next exit on it was closed due to an accident. I left the E4 and took a secondary route. There were many trucks and other cars taking the same detour and since the road was quite snowy and it still snowed the drive was at quite a low pace. Following a truck is no fun since you hardly see anything beside of the white snow whirling through the air. That is called snörök – “snow smoke”. Sometimes it was not easy to follow the street because all meadows and fields are just as white as the road and the red sticks marking the road hardly help in the snörök.
I took it easy, stopped the car in one of the rare snow-free parking bays and made a photo from the collapsed barn buried in the deep snow.
When I came home the snow fall had stopped and the streets where ploughed. On each corner you could see piles of snow up to four meters high. And finally even my elder bush seemed to realise that summer is over and has started to cast of its leaves.
Tomorrow I’ll take a day off and enjoy the early winter. Skis or snowshoes? I haven’t decided yet.
Some other snow depth:
This article is part of the series “2016-11: #snowember16”.
And the snow fall continues. Today it didn’t stop snowing at all. 40 cm of snow covered the backyard of my house in the morning, now it’s already 65 cm and probably the fence will be buried by the snow soon.
Most people are only out to clear the snow, by shovel, snow blower or – more efficient – by tractor. The big municipal snowplough has just come through for the first time today, leaving a “plogkant” (plough rim) – a wall of snow, round 60 cm high, on the side of the street. That means, before I even think off taking the car, that stands on the driveway of my property, I have to go out and shovel all that snow away. And that snow of the plogkant is always quite compact and therefore heavy.
The neighbours have started to look at me almost a bit angry. They know, that I’m snow-addicted and just love that kind of weather while they just see the work. Perhaps I would think the same, if I had lived here the whole of my life.
But anyway – it is so beautiful with all that snow. Have a look by yourself.
Today it’s even cold the first day with day temperatures round -6 °C. In combination with all that snow, it’s hardly believable that it’s just the beginning of November.
The forecast says, it will permanent frost temperature the next 10 days. I – sorry, my neighbours – would approve it.
This article is part of the series “2016-11: #snowember16”.
Often the first snow in Skelleftehamn already comes in late October and melts away the other day. Larger snowfalls can occur in November – in 2010 for example the snowfall lasted several days and covered the ground with 70 centimetres of snow.
This years first snow fall was already on Monday but rain melted it away the very same day.
On Wednesday however it started to snow and since then quite a lot of snow has fallen in Skelleftehamn. I have round 35 centimetres in my backyard and more is forecasted for the next days. This is a bit unusual for the beginning of November where mostly it’s just dark and wet.
You could call me snow-addicted, I just love snow – the more, the better! And so I’ve been in great mood since yesterday that the rainy tristesse was replaced by the grandeur of snow.
Six photos from today:
This article is part of the series “2016-11: #snowember16”.
Hooray! Winter is here! I want 4 meters of snow and -45 °C already in November. (Well, a bit less is ok, too.)
I saw the first snow of the season two days before on my way back home from Umeå. The forecast predicted more snow to come today – even a class 1 snowfall warning had been issued – but not in Skelleftehamn where rain was forecasted.
Skelleftehamn showed only some patches of slush-like snow this morning as a result of last nights precipitations. Skellefteå got two centimeters of snow and experienced some wet snow showers today. On the way back to Skelleftehamn more snow lay on the ground. Between town and home it’s mostly a bit colder with neither city nor the Baltic Sea directly nearby. In Skelleftehamn itself however the snow has been almost rained away and the thermometer showed +2 °C.
Today I had a rehearsal with a new jazz trio in Kroksjön, which means hook lake and is just eight kilometres south from Skellefteå. It was just slightly colder there and the snow less wet. Round ten centimetres had fallen down – still wet but white and beautiful to look at. I took some photos after the rehearsal (I always have a tripod in the car).
When I made these photos it didn’t snow anymore, temperatures where below zero and I could see some stars. When I was on the 364 to Skellefteå it started snowing again, but not much, so I took the E4, the fastest way to Skelleftehamn. Well, normally. Today it took much more time. The snow fall intensified more and more and the visibility was really poor. Instead of 110 km/h I hardly dared to drive 70.
Another car tailgated me, eager to overtake. Finally the E4 became two-lane and the car driver overtook me. I really had to smile, because now – without my backlights in front – the other driver was forced to slow down as well, driving exactly the same tempo I had been using all the time.
It wasn’t easy but I found the exit to Skelleftehamn. The snow fall intensified even more and I slowed down further. Using the full beams the approaching snow looked like a tunnel of stars when a space ship goes into some kind of faster-than-light hyperdrive. That’s what it looks like (imagine that in fast motion):
Funnily enough the heavy snow fall decreased when I approached Skelleftehamn and stopped when I arrived home.
Now at 23:30 we have ca. 5 cm of snow and it started snowing a bit again. If the forecast is right we will get permanent frost on Friday and 30 cm of snow from Friday until Monday morning.
After yesterdays sunny autumn walk I drove back to Skelleftehamn today. When I left Umeå round 7 o’clock the sky was mostly blue. On the E4 I could see orange-grey low hanging clouds ahead. Near Ånäset it started to snow. Some of the snow showers were quite intense and soon covered the roads and the ploughed fields with white snow.
Skelleftehamn is still warmed by the near Baltic Sea and so it was round about 2 centigrades warmer. Enough to let the snow melt away.