Retrospect: a rainy autumn

Wave of leaves (taken on 11 September}

The day before yesterday a blog post on the weather page of Balderskolan caught my eye. The school Balderskolan in Skellefteå has its own weather station and has been collecting statistical data since 2002.

Here some statistics from August to October the last three years. The data is taken from the blog entry. And as you see – the last months have been very wet indeed compared to the two years before.

Number of days with rainfall

2015 2016 2017
August 7 st * 11 st 18 st
September 6 st 5 st 21 st
October 6 st 8 st 19 st
Total 19 st * 24 st 58 st

Precipitation in mm

2015 2016 2017
August 39 mm * 38 mm 59 mm
September 28 mm 18 mm 81 mm
October 4 mm 5 mm 79 mm
Total 71 mm * 61 mm 219 mm


(* data for the first seven days in August 2016 is missing)

Wintry day trip to Vindeln

C. and O., my best friends from Munich have been visiting me for some days. Today we made a car trip to Vindeln via Burträsk.

Contrary to the weather forecast the sun was shining, when we started. Right after Örviken, hardly 7 km from home I had to stop the car to look at the bay Ytterviksfjärden. Larger parts had frozen over under the last two days and were covered with a thin layer of fresh snow. The first sunny “winter photo” of the season!

A wintry morning

The road between Falmark and Hjoggböle – hometown of Per Olov Enquist – was snow covered and hardly any other car appeared. Mist lay on the snowy ground, illuminated by the sun in warm yellow and orange. The whole scenery looked extremely beautiful and a bit fantastical. I was really glad to share this special mood with my friends instead of a cold November rain.

Hazy light IHazy light II

When we approached Burträsk clouds had started to cover the sky and the sun was hidden. It was so foggy, that the lake Burträsket hardly could be seen. We continued without stopping and arrived in Vindeln round 11 o’clock. While O. vas visiting a business acquaintance, C. and I made a long promenade along the river Vindelälven. It was grey in Vindeln and sometimes it snowed a bit. So the scenery was wintry as well but completely different from the colourful hazy atmosphere some hours ago.

Frozen flowerSnowfall in VindelnVindelforsarna

Freezing over

One cold night and the big lake Snesviken starts to freeze over. Even the sheltered bay between mainland and the near island Storgrundet is partly covered with a very thin layer of new ice.

Freezing over – Baltic Sea at StorgrundetFreezing over – the lake Snesviken

This ice however won’t last long. Either it will melt when days get warmer again or the next wind will break it apart.

Wet snow and slush

It snowed the last days and it’s snowing right now in Skelleftehamn.

In Skelleftehamn it already snowed this morning but it was too warm and the snow didn’t settle.

In town it was slightly colder, but with temperatures still above zero the snow was very wet and soon became damp, slowly transforming into puddles of snow slush.

Anyway it’s still the end of October so it may take a while till the first real winter snow.

Snow tracks in Skellefteå

A first glimpse of winter

I’m sitting in the bus travelling to Skellefteå to go to work. This time I don’t travel from Skelleftehamn as usual but from Umeå where Annika and I landed yesterday evening after our one-week journey through Scotland.

While it was warm in Scotland (hardly below 10 °C, up to 17 °C) it is quite cold in Northern Sweden. Not really wintry cold, but cold enough that the lakes start to freeze over and precipitation is more snow than rain.

Snow shower on the E4 near Skellefteå

Time to change to dubbdäck – to studded tyres!

∞ Infinite rain ∞

Ok, guys, let’s face it: It always has been raining, it’s raining right now and it will never stop raining again until the end of the world!

Never ever I have expected such a rainy autumn! Since I’ve been back from the hiking tour on the Kungsleden it rained most of the days and in the spare moments without precipitation it was cloudy anyway.

Sometimes it was windstill, sometimes it was stormy, but it rained. Either as a steady rain or more like a curtain of a dense fog or sometimes as a series of cloudbursts. So my daily outfit has been almost the same for weeks: A sturdy rain parka and rubber boots.

Rubber boots became my standard shoes

Of course the sun came out little here and there but mostly just for a short time. I can count the days with much sun with the fingers of one hand. And I don’t need all fingers!

Today I looked at one of the many puddles of water. It was some centimetres deep. Some yellow leaves – probably victims of last night’s squalls – floated have under the water surface, which was rippled by the ongoing rain. And then I saw it:

The Sign Of Infinity!

∞ Infinite rain ∞

I looked at the sign and all at once I got the dreadful message: It always has been raining, it’s raining right now and it will never stop raining again until the end of the world!

Addendum (11 October)

If I understand the weather statistics of the school Balderskolan in Skellefteå correctly, we got 63mm of rain yesterday. That’s more rain than the average precipitation  in Skellefteå all October! No wonder, that some of the puddles in Bonnstan were more than 15 cm deep. Since these puddles were covered with yellow birch leaves it looked really beautiful. What a pity, that I only had my iPhone to shoot this image:

Bonnstan – Skellefteå or Venice?

 

Autumn northern light above Skelleftehamn

I have stopped counting how many northern lights I have missed in Skelleftehamn the last four weeks. The sky was covered with a thick layer of clouds most of the days (and nights). I only could see some week greenish coloration lingering through a break in the clouds for some minutes two weeks ago. The rest of the day I watched all the fantastic aurora photos made in Norway and other places, while it stayed cloudy here.

This week the weather started to be much nicer. The air however was cold and moist in the night making the nights quite foggy. While the aurora was visible in town last night, it was foggy again here. But this night I was lucky. Even though it’s colder (+ 3 °C just now) outside, the sky remained clear. When I saw the first green shade I immediately took the car (it’s faster) and drove to the near lake Snesviken where I could watch the first polar lights in Skelleftehamn this season.

Aurora above the lake Snesviken IAurora above the lake Snesviken IIAurora above the lake Snesviken III

The red colour in the left is no northern light, it’s the lights of the town Skellefteå, probably caused by the still moist air.

Autumn in Skelleftehamn

Autumnal colours, blue sky and afternoon sun – this is the golden aspect of autumn. Time to wade into the shallow waters of the river Skellefteälven and make some autumn pictures.

Autumn in Skelleftehamn

One week after autumnal equinox the sun sets at 18:18 but days get shorter soon. In my dreams the first snow had already fallen. This may turn into reality in some weeks.

Ships and boats in Skelleftehamn

Today I planned to make some autumnal pictures in the early evening. I took the car to the small boat harbour tjuvkistan in Skelleftehamn. It felt like ages ago that I had been there. On the way there I saw a ship anchored in the commercial port. I stopped and to my surprise it was a ship from my hometown: The “Seabass” from Bremen. Of course I had to take a picture:

The ship “Seabass”

I went on to tjuvkistan and took some photos with trees (and boat navigation lights) reflecting in the sea. Still many boats lay in the small harbour or were on the way from or to the islands, but soon most boat people will set their boats on land before the weather gets too cold.

Tjuvkistan ITjuvkistan II

Hopefully I will have some other opportunities to make more pictures as long the leaves have not fallen down.

 

Summer in a nutshell

This Saturday Annika and I met our friend Elisabet, who never says no when it comes to being outdoors. Even if we used a car to reach all those nice places round Umeå we indeed were outdoors most of the time.

1. Mountain hike

Elisabet had asked us what we wanted to do this day beside of bathing. Hiking, sleeping, barbecuing? The sea, forest, mountain …?

I mentioned that it wouldn’t be too easy to find mountains round Umeå, but Elisabet knows many nice places and so she suggested to go up the mountain Tavelsjöberget. Since the top is just 284 metres above sea level, it’s not the longest hike up. There’s a 5 km trail leading through wetlands (according to the sign rubber boots are recommended) but the shortest way up is just 700 meters long. That’s the way we took.

Choose your trail!Our trail up the mountain IOur trail up the mountain IIOur trail up the mountain III

After the short but steep and rocky way up we reached the top. Here we took a break and enjoyed the view over the lake Tavelsjön and the landscape around.

Taking a break on the mountain Tavelsjöberget

Elisabet told us about some caves nearby and we already saw the waymarks leading down. There at the western side the mountain is very steep and rocky. We found all of the four caves but entered only one, since the others were only reachable by crawling.

Sun beams above the rocky western slopeThe largest caveRocky block fields

We took a shortcut along a narrow path until we came to the very same trail that we took uphills. Soon we were back at the car and quite eager to enjoy some ice cream and take a bath.

2. Sandy beach and ice cream

… and so we did! First we bought ice cream and something to drink at the kiosk and then we took a refreshing bath. Water temperature: 19 °C, air temperature: round 22 °C. Just perfect, if you ask me.

The lake Tavelsjön IIThe lake Tavelsjön IBathing in the Tavelsjön – Foto: Elisabet

After a bath (Elisabet took two) and an ice cream (Annika and I took two) we started to plan the rest of the day. Barbecue: yes! By the water: definitely! But where? And where to get food? Luckily there was a food store in Hissjö quite nearby. There we purchased food, something to drink and Elisabet asked for some plastic knifes and a fork, which we got.

Then we headed to Bäcksjön, a beautiful lake in the forest.

3. Forest lake and barbecue

There’s a grilling place at the southern tip of the Lake. Seven other cars parked on the same parking place so we knew we wouldn’t be alone.

Elisabet is quite independent when it comes to barbecuing. While I always have a tripod and rubber boots in the car for photographing, Elisabet uses to have a grill and charcoal with her. Soon our sausages, bread, halloumi cheese, asparagus and tomatoes lay on her grill getting barbecued and beside of some asparagus we ate it all. And it tasted so good!

BäcksjönBarbecue by the lake

After our meal Elisabet and I took another bath. We weren’t successful when it came to swimming because the lake is quite shallow and you have to go a long while until you can start to swim.

We were so lucky: Good food, great company, a beautiful lake, warm summer weather with a slight breeze and – not to be underestimated: hardly any mosquitoes!

Summer in Northern Sweden! It’s hardly imaginable that people skated on the ice of the Tavelsjö only two months ago.