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.

 

The cranes gather

The weather felt quite autumn-like the last days: Much rain, hardly any sun and temperatures between 5 °C and 12 °C. But most birch trees still bear green leaves and it will take some more weeks until leaf coloration is in full swing.

The common cranes and whooper swans however have started to gather.  Delle, who is visiting me and I saw some hundred of them on the fields between Kusmark and Drängsmark yesterday. I guess they will fly southwards soon.

Gathering common cranes and whooper swansFlying cranes IFlying cranes II

Translations:

EnglishGermanSwedishLatin
Common craneKranichTranaGrus grus
Whooper swanSingschwanSångsvanCygnus cygnus

#snowember16 – retrospect

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.

My backyard two weeks ago (2011-11-07 07:20)My backyard today (2016-11-20 16:30)

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.

Snow depth in the backyard

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?

#snowember16 – part III

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.

  • The 1st photo is made in Ursviken this morning, when I took my first winter bath.
  • The 2nd photo shows the way to Storgrundet at the coast.
  • The 3rd photo shows the sandy beach of Storgrundet, or at least the snow covering it. Looks like boat season is soon over now.
At the shore of the river Skellefteälven in UrsvikenThe way to StorgrundetStorgrundet – the beach and a lot of snow

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.

Taking advantage of the sun

Yesterday I took the car and drove to Umeå. The sky was blue and the sun was shining. Sounds nice, right? Well, it was nice but hard to drive. The sun melted the frost on the asphalt and the wet street reflected the low hanging sunlight. Sometimes it was really hard to see anything other than just a glaring white nothing.

Today the sky was blue and the sun was shining again. Sounds nice, right? Today it was nice since Annika and I took a longer stroll through the forests near Strömback south from Umeå.

The temperatures were above zero, but parts of the ground were still frost covered. We followed a path between Tjuvvarpet – a lake – and Matsund – part of the Baltic Sea. Anyway you could see neither lake or sea from the path since the forest was too dense and hid the waters which were just 100 meters away.

Way through the forestWooden walkway IIFrost covered lichen and mossWooden walkway I

On the way back we made a short rest at a place on the lake near the hill Tjuvvarpberget. Most of the lake was still free of ice but near the rocky shore you could see the first covering of ice. It almost looked a bit wintry.

partly frozen

Apropos winter: If the weather forecast is right we will get at least 30 cm of snow in Skelleftehamn within the next eight days. Nevertheless I’m quite sceptical. Just two centigrade warmer and it will all pour down as rain.