A new year has started – this time with warm, grey and stormy weather. I didn’t take many pictures because of the dull light but this one I think is a bit funny. A fisherman completely dressed in red stands on the riverbank of the Skellefteälven, giving the scenery it’s only bright colour.
I wish you all a happy New Year 2019!
Today I wanted to take more photos of the pack ice covering the Baltic Sea, this time in sunlight. Unfortunately the weather didn’t follow the forecast. (Yes, this happens!) Instead of the predicted sun and clear sky it was cloudy.
When I was brushing by teeth I noticed a light in the west. A huge honey yellow full moon hung in the western sky and shone into my bathroom. Apparently western winds had started to blow the cloud layer eastward.
I took my camera equipment and my winter parka and drove to the beach to take pictures from the full moon. Here’s one of those pictures:
To be honest, I think this is a boring picture. It says more about the pros and cons of my telephoto lens than showing an interesting scenery. The photo could have been taken anywhere. Everywhere where there are power lines and a bit of sky.
I took the car and headed for another place. Hopefully I would find a better motive. To make a long story short: I didn’t. Even the photo with the three islands (two of them are seen above the horizon) looks pale and featureless.
Suddenly I heard birdcalls. Three white whooper swans flew along the coast, heading south. Looks like a good idea, because when the Baltic Sea is frozen they will have hard times finding food. I was lucky: camera at hand, telephoto lens mounted, time to increase ISO and activate the VR. Click!
I continued to Näsgrundet, the place where I photoed the pack ice two nights ago. The ice however was gone! Probably the very same wind that pushed the clouds to the east blew also the ice floes into the open sea. Beside of some grounded ice floes the sea was open again. I decided to continue using my telephoto lens, both for motives farther away and quite near.
I got attracted by a rock covered with a humpback ice pattern. Looking at the results I’m quite content with the lens for this type of motive. I cannot decide which of the two photos I prefer, the first one showing the whole rock or the second one that focuses more on the icy details. What do you think?
When I was home, the temperature had dropped from -9.5 °C to -14 °C.
Some hours later: The sun is setting. The air is chilly but the colours are warm. The Baltic Sea is steaming with cold. One wide-angle photo, taken at 13:07 at the same place.
Home again the sun has set but it’s still light. I decide to go for a jog. It’s fun to hear the snow crunching under the studded soles of my new running shoes. And I do not need my headlights because the sunset is so slow. The air is cold, round -15 °C. My fitness it not the best and I have to breath a lot to keep my pace. Good to have a buff for warming up the cold air a bit.
Two photos from today: (1) me photographing, (2) me jogging. Keep in mind, that it was warmer on the first photo.
P.S.: When I look at the whole blog article I’m more content with the photo of the full moon. The isolated photo may be pointless but in the article it has its place.
It’s a quarter to one in the dead of night. And this is a special night. It’s the longest night of the winter, the night of the winter solstice. Yesterday the sun went down at 13:27, today the sun will rise at 9:39. That makes the night last more than 20 hours.
When I came home from lunch today, the sun was already below the horizon. It was however still bright enough to make me realise, that the bay Kallholmsfjärden was covered with pack ice. At 22:45 I took the car to make some pictures of the ice but first I drove to the peninsula Näsudden to check the ice conditions there. Probably the open Baltic Sea would be free of ice beside of some sheltered bays. I was really surprised to see a belt of packed ice even here, probably half a kilometre wide.
After my eyes got used to the darkness I realised, that the pack ice was slightly moving. The drifting ice floes hadn’t frozen together yet and were moved by the waves. Now I could even hear the cracking and creaking sounds of the ice floes. Extremely fascinating and almost inviting to try to jump from ice floe to ice floe …
… no, I didn’t try that. I stayed at the ice rim, that parts land from sea, felt the wind, looked at some snowflakes drifting by and watched the vibrating sea ice. And I took some photos. That’s my tonight’s favourite:
After an hour I started to feel cold. I didn’t plan to be outdoors so long. Learnings: Always take an even warmer jacket and windproof pants with you. But freezing was no big issue: Driving home was a matter of minutes and the first thing I did was taking a really hot shower.
Tomorrow I will take another look. It’s not only weekend but also the first day of my Christmas holidays!
It has been cloudy with temperatures slightly below zero for some days. It even snowed, but only a bit. After lunch I walked along the river Skellefteälven. 15 cm of snow, mostly old and half frozen cover the ground.
I experienced years with much more snow in mid-December but also years where it rained at this time of the season. So I should not complain, but as you can guess I hope for more snow. A lot of more snow.
The first colder days with temperatures between -15 °C and -20 °C. Colder in the inland with temperatures around -30 °C. Tomorrow clouds will approach and it will get 10 °C warmer. Unfortunately still no large amounts of snow in sight.
After the warm but chilly weather on Holmön it’s nice to have colder weather at home. The sky has been clear all night and day and the morning temperatur was -14 °C.
The whole open sea was smoking. A common view when the sea is free of ice but the air is cold.
At the horizon I could see the vintervägg, a local meteorological phenomenon that is typical for this season. Vintervägg means “vinter wall” and names a cloud layer on sea. Sometimes it’s quite near, sometimes it’s far away. Today it was far away and a third meteorological effect came into view: A mirage, also called Fata Morgana. It has the same origin as the sea smoke: abrupt temperature differences. This is why these mirages mostly are found in deserts and polar regions.
Skelleftehamn is not really part of the polar region but shares at least some of the meteorological phenomenons.
Yesterday and today morning it snowed in Skelleftehamn. 10 cm of snow cover my backyard. The snow is wet and heavy but it brightens up the scenery in the dark hours of the day. And there are many dark hours: Sunrise 9:11 , sunset 13:40. Today I worked from home and took a break to take some pictures:
The Baltic Sea is still open. There was an ice cover between the island Storgrundet and mainland some days before, but now there is partly open water, too.
The lake Snesviken however is completely frozen and covered with a fresh, white layer of snow. The trees on the island are mostly free of snow, probably because of the quite warm temperatures.
When I drove to the peninsula Näsgrundet and went to the shore I could spot a dark, blurred object through the falling snow.It was the MTM Gibraltar, a tanker, that was towed into the port – a tow boat ahead, the ice breaker Baus behind. It looked enormous through the falling snow flakes, although it is only 140 m long.
Finally it’s snowing in Skelleftehamn and Skellefteå. It may soon blend into rain, because it’s not very cold, but right now it’s beautiful.
While some protected parts of the Baltic Sea are covered with clear and solid ice, most of the Baltic Sea is still open. So is the bay Kalmholmsfjärden, my nearest access to the sea. At the shore of the shallow end however the water starts to freeze over. The so-called pancake ice is formed – floating ice floes that spin around, grind off their corners and therefore get a circular shape. When it’s cold enough they will freeze together, but wind, waves and changes in sea level can break them apart again.
