Winter sea Jan 5 2016

-13 °C, clouds and wind – that was the weather this morning in Skelleftehamn.

I drove to the peninsula Näsgrundet which is quite exposed to the elements. Despite of the cold temperatures of the last days the sea is still open.

Beside of the dam, that connects Näsgrundet to the mainland, the water is smoother. It was still open yesterday, but covered with ice floes today. The floes raise and sag with the incoming waves, there are not frozen together yet.

A bit further, where I took the first image, the waves spray sea foam ashore and the rocky shore is covered with a thick layer of ice. Last year I took photos of the icicles, but this year the ice wall isn’t big enough yet.

You see the fog-like smoke above the sea water? That’s not the drifting snow, it’s sea smoke (a.k.a. frost smoke or steam fog). When it gets colder the vaporising water in the air will directly freeze to ice dust, forming this sea smoke.

I guess, larger parts of the coastal Baltic Sea will be frozen over in some days. You can see already the first thin and transparent ice crystals on the surface.

Lake-effect or not? Jan 4 2016

Postscript (5 January 0:00):
No, it’s no lake effect, just ordinary snowfall. More snow to come, but probably not much.

Skelleftehamn has a quite exposed location when it comes to snow. I experienced it several times, that quite huge amount fell it a short time.

The so called lake-effect snow occurs, when the Baltic sea is still open and winds blow onshore. Mostly it is very local and interestingly enough it is mostly ignored completely by the smhi, the Swedish weather service.

Today it started snowing round 13:00 and snow fall increased. Some neighbours have already started ploughing and on the road lie round about 15 new snow from today, mostly from the last hours.

In January 2014 came 70 to 80 snow within two days, December 2012 fell 83 cm snow within 24 hours. Even last winter came a lot of snow straight, but I wasn’t home.

I’m curious how much snow we will have tomorrow morning and when it will stop snowing. And finally it’s cold enough for the snow to stay with forecasted temperatures between -14 and -23 °C.

For certain I can make my first ski tour this winter, perhaps to Storgrundet, the nearest island.

Being honoured by winter Jan 4 2016

Perhaps the biggest change 2016 is that I quit my job and started my own company. As I wrote yesterday, today is the first day of my “new life”.

The main reason for the change was my increasing interest in photography during the last years. I didn’t make any specific plans yet, but one of the main focuses will be on winter photography. Snow and ice. That’s why I really felt honoured by the winter weather today. It felt like winter congratulating me to my decision:

Temperatures dropped from -8 °C to -13 °C, still dropping, it was quite windy and it snowed quite a lot, still snowing.

That’s how it looked like at the beach in Storgrundet:

Wind and snow fall at the beach of Storgrundet

I hope, a lot of snow will fall the next days, I’m longing for the first ski tour in Skelleftehamn and I guess, the kayak season is over.

Christmas Sea Dec 26 2015

Christmas flood Dec 25 2015

Yesterdays Christmas was still a bit white and snowy but then – déjà vu – it got warmer and started to rain. At the same time the sea level was extremely high again: More than 100 cm above normal. I did the beach walk with chest waders and spikes and took the picture of one of the small pine trees with my underwater camera:

The locals that have their summer cottages on the near island Storgrundet came with their cars to check the sea level. They were a bit nervous because just now they cannot reach the island; neither by boat nor by foot. The ice itself is still thick but not at the borders where the warm weather melted it away.

Same day, another place: Skellefteälven – even more water than some weeks ago. The waterside promenade along the river had a layer of ice on the bottom and was flooded with up to 30 cm water.

Interesting weather, but I miss the snow.

Did anyone of you had a white Christmas?

In between the seasons Dec 22 2015

Today is winter solstice which means that it’s the shortest day of the year. For the astronomers winter starts today, for the meteorologists it already started on 1st December. But winter, well …

It has been a special winter so long this year. Again.

Beside of some colder days it has been too warm with more rain than snow. All minor streets are covered with a shell of wet ice and the thin leftover snow cover is icy, too.

It’s almost the same as last year. Or 2013. Or 2011. Perhaps it’s just the normal weather anomalies, but perhaps it’s already the ongoing climate shift and we will call that a normal winter twenty years from now. Future will show.

The water level in the Baltic Sea has been high for several weeks, today with +60 cm; +95 cm are predicted for Christmas Day. That’s what it looks like:

On other parts of the ice you could see wet snow mobile tracks, but I wouldn’t dare to enter the ice without asking the locals.

According to the forecast the weather won’t change much the next days and on Christmas Day it probably will rain. But there’re places way up north, where it will be even warmer this year: The forecast for Montréal in Canada predicts +17 °C for Christmas Eve!

Translation:

English	German
winter solstice	Wintersonnenwende

Långhällan – some kind of another world Dec 13 2015

Today it was even a bit colder as yesterday. When I left the house to make some photos, the thermometer showed -10 °C and it hardly became warmer today.

This time I drove to one of my favourite places nearby, Långhällan, where the coast is quite rocky. When I left the car to walk the remaining 250 meters I could already hear the waves breaking ashore. The first view of the rocky coast was like from another world. The higher parts of the rocks were covered with a bit of snow, while the lower rocks were crusted with a layer of ice. This layer will grow with every wave rolling ashore.

The next hour(s) I spend sitting and crawling on the ice covered rocks and tried to make pictures of the incoming waves. I took more than a hundred pictures but I’m not completely content yet. Anyway, it was just fun being outside and experiencing this fine weather.

Finally the sun came out and started to fill nature with light – first of soft pink, then of intense yellow and orange colours.

I made another “photo session” and took even more pictures of the waves, this time illuminated by the low sun, but time was short and the waves were less impressive.

Soon the sun vanished behind some trees and I walked along the coast were I spotted the next motives: Last day high water has surrounded the lower parts of the small bushes with a solid layer of ice, that gleamed and sparkled in the sun.

After a while I had enough of taking pictures and slowly returned to the car. Two photos from the way back through the forest. It got colder – down to -15 °C and the soft-edged snowy landscape made me feel, that I left the world Långhällan and I was back in my home world again. The only thing that lacks for a real winter: A bit more snow.

Appendix 1 – Things that I was glad to have today

Warm cloths: insulated jacket and warm thermal pants, as well as warm gloves. I love winter but I don’t like to freeze.
Warm and waterproof “Muck Boots” rubber boots that kept my feet warm and dry.
A good camera, a good tripod and my favourite lenses.
Spare batteries – a must-have when it’s cold.
Most of all: My crampon-like spikes from Snowline – without them I wouldn’t have any chance to climb on the ice covered rocks.

Appendix 2 – making of

The first winter day in Skelleftehamn Dec 12 2015

After a period of weather with mild temperatures and rain it started to get colder yesterday and the last two centimetres of snow in Skelleftehamn didn’t melt away. Temperatures sank below zero yesterday afternoon and this morning the thermometer showed -7 °C. The morning was starry and above the western horizon the sky was already blue, even if sunrise was still two hours away.

A good day to make some winter photos.

The first one is shot at the kanotudden – the canoe bay which is a large bay of the Skellefteå river in Ursviken, 5km away. Parts of the bay are quite shallow and calm and so the whole bay is ice covered:

This photos shows the Skellefteå river near Stackgrönnan, 8km away. Even here the river is completely covered with ice. Sky gets brighter and some feathery clouds changed into light pink:

The next two photos are shot from almost the same place – Bergsbydammen (11 km away) – the only possibility to cross the river between Skelleftehamn and Skellefteå. The current round the dam is stronger and parts of the river are open. The first photo points west or upstream, the second photo points east or downstream.

Some hours later …

The next photo is made before sunset, which is hardly four hours after sunrise at this time of the year. This photo is made from the peninsula Rönnskär in Skelleftehamn. Probably my favourite photo of today.

Early sunset above a wooden boat bridge in Skelleftehamn

That was my first winter day in Skelleftehamn. Now I’m longing for a long, cold winter with much snow and time for making more photos.

Falkträsket Dec 8 2015

Flood along the Skellefteälven Dec 6 2015

The river Skellefteälven had much water today. Water level was 87 cm above normal according to a hiker I met at the river today. The hiker had to turn because parts of the way were still under water just as the ground besides.

It was funny walking on this “way” – the ground was frozen, 15 cm water above, slightly frozen over, too. I even saw a fish fleeing my rubber boots under the thin ice cover. And I was so glad about my crampon-like spikes, that I had with me, since the ground was almost frictionless.

After a grey morning the weather was nice with blue sky and sun, but still much too warm for the season. I really wonder how the river succeeds in freezing over when it’s hardly frosty. I also wonder why the river ice can rise almost 90 centimetres without getting any visible cracks. Probably it’s quite soft.

Ten, fifteen centimeters above water level you could see ice round the branches and twigs of the smaller trees and bushes, marking the high water peak of last night. I had to crouch and lie down to make the next picture.

It was easier to make pictures of the beautiful frost patterns that covered the ground. By the way: These are colour photographs.