3× winter coast Jan 23 2018

Yesterday, 13:30

After having lunch, Annika and I drove to Näsgrundet, where the Baltic Sea had been mostly clear of ice three days before. Still most of the sea was ice-free, only at the coast some meters of new thin ice had formed.

It had started clearing up and the temperatures dropped to -15 °C already in daytime. The cold air over the open water created sea smoke, that gleamed in the colours of the low sun.

Yesterday, 23:00

It continued getting colder and soon the temperature dropped below -20 °C. Before sleeping I was out again, this time to check for an optical effect, that can appear when it’s as cold as then: light pillars. Even though it was round -23 °C I wasn’t lucky, but I took some photos of the Rönnskär industry anyhow.

Today, 8:00 – 9:00

This morning was the coldest yet this winter with temperatures round -24 °C. That’s when I start wearing two pairs of gloves for taking pictures. The inner fleece glove for handling the camera and a thick woollen mitten for staying warm when I just wait or look for motives.

The first motive may look quite boring but I love motives like these: just different cloud layers and ice up to the horizon plus the first gentle sunrise colours.

Sunrise coloured clouds and ice covered sea

Remember, this part of the Baltic Sea had been clear of ice the day before. Due to the cold weather it has frozen within a range of several kilometres within less than twenty hours. It still amazes me how fast this process can be.

After I had made the former photo I detected that purple-red spot beside of the island Gåsören. The sun started to rise. I changed the lens and made a telephoto shot. (It’s quite blurred due to the atmospheric conditions)

Then I waited for the sun to rise. And really – after some minutes the sun succeeded to rise above the lower cloud layer. But only seconds later the upper cloud layer, that approached from the southwest covered the red orb again and the sun disappeared for the rest of the day.

Though it was still below -20 °C it started to snow.

Checking the winter … Jan 19 2018

This winter has been quite lagom yet. It hadn’t been too warm for a longer period, nor it was it really cold. We got snow several times, but we didn’t get any lake effect snow neither as e.g. five years ago where it snowed more than 80 cm within 24 hours.

Yesterday and today it snowed round 20 cm. Since we already had round half a meter of snow, the fence of my garden is about to disappear in the snow.

I took the photo above through the window of my living room. It shows my (and the neighbours) backyard. The fence is round 80 cm high.

Today I took the car to the Näsgrundet, one of my favourite places in Skelleftehamn. When I had been at the same place 12 days ago, the Baltic Sea was covered with ice as far as the eye could see. When I arrived today I was really surprised to see the Baltic Sea clear of ice again.

The photo above shows a small bay beside of Näsgrundet. The ice had been broken by wind and the floodwater two days ago. The wind was pushing the ice floes slowly offwards and some of them already had started to drift seawards.

That was the view to the northeast. The view to the southwest is completely different: there is the peninsula Rönnskär with the copper smelter of the same name. It snowed but the low sun managed to peek through the airy cloud layer. Temperature was -9 °C and the chimneys smoked.

In front of the industrial plant is the “cape” of Näsgrundet, which is a peninsula as well. I took a short discovery tour and found another motive. When I was standing up, Rönnskär and some trees were visible but when I knelt down I was able to hide the background and to make a completely different photo:

I intensified both contrast and colours to give this photo a more irreal appeal. The motive itself however is unchanged.

What type of winter comes next? I could take a look at the weather forecast of SMHI, but I have difficulties to take it seriously. Beside of the overall temperature and wind direction trends the web forecasts for Skelleftehamn are quite bad. The 20 cm of snow for example weren’t forecasted at all.

But in the back of my mind I know that lake effect snow could be possible again as long as the Baltic Sea is open and wind comes from eastern directions …

Winter is just some miles away … Dec 10 2017

Let’s face it: The weather in Skellefteå and Umeå has been nasty the last days – temperatures above zero and a lot of rain making the minor roads icy and incredibly slippery. Most of the snow of the days before has been thawing away. So just now there’s much more winter in Germany towns than here beside the coast of the Baltic Sea.

The good thing: winter is not far away. I was in Umeå today and Annika and I drove westwards to catch a glimpse of winter. First it continued raining a good while, the road was dark and wet and the snow was slushy and ugly. But suddenly – just within a few kilometres the weather changed and rain turned into snow. Snow fall increased and anything was snow covered and white: the roads, the trees, the traffic signs, the bogs and the parking place where we stopped to visit the Hägring (english: mirage).

Hägring is an artwork between Bjurholm and Vännäs. It is a church-shaped object built of mirror fragments and stands in the midst of a bog. We’ve been there in May and knew that the bog is wet but safe to walk on. It was funny anyway to walk through knee-deep snow and feeling the bog bouncing underneath our feet with each step.

Hägring – artwork between Bjurholm and Vännäs

We continued westwards, Annika was driving and I was navigating and taking some pictures through the windscreen. Right after Bjurholm we took a minor road to Örträsk, a village by the lake Örträsksjön. Everything was snow covered. We stopped at the small grocery to buy something to drink but it was closed due to the “snow storm”. Well, we knew of the level one weather warning but it didn’t seem so severe.

Since days in December are short (and we didn’t find a place to eat in Örträsk) we decided to return to Umeå but on another route taking some minor roads eastwards. Snow fall intensified but still only some centimetres covered the roads.

While we followed the small ways the snow on the road got deeper and deeper until Annika’s Golf ploughed through 10 cm of snow. Where there was a house, people were outside to clear the snow with any available tool – from shovels to quite huge shovel loaders. But we didn’t get stuck.

Snowy road II – 10 cm of snow on the road

A man is clearing the snow with a shovel loader

Finally we reached the European route E12 which runs between Mo I Rana (Norway) and Helsinki (Finland). Even this road was covered with snow but much better to drive than the smaller forest roads before. 66 km to Umeå and it was snowing almost the whole way back. The last part however we came into the more maritim and warmer climate of Greater Umeå area and snow turned back into rain. We however got our winter impressions. Within just in half a day! One of the big advantages of living here!

On a final note, a “making-of” photo of Annika: Me walking to the Hägring:

Dreaming of snow … Dec 1 2017

It’s the first of December and luckily Skelleftehamn has been looking wintry for some days with temperatures below zero. The backyard is covered with round 30 cm of snow. Many of you however probably know that I’m a winter and especially a snow fan. So I’m longing for much more snow to come.

My personal record in Skelleftehamn is 108 cm in December 2011 which is a lot but far away from extreme.

Tromsø in Northern Norway uses to get at least one meter of snow each season. The record is 240 cm. Would we have that much snow in Skelleftehamn I still could look out of my kitchen window but snow probably would be on eye level.

The Swedish record is 327 cm of snow, which covered the small village Kopparåsen in February 1926. That’s really a lot of snow and most of my house would be buried in the snow. At least I would find it and could dig a tunnel to the door to enter and leave my “cave”.

Norway however has areas with much more snow. Just two and a half years ago, round 15 meters of snow covered the glacier of Folgefonna in Jotunheimen. In June! (Here’s a Swedish article on the website Åka skidor. You can see, that the snow almost buried a whole cable car). In this case I would have to temporarily look for another place to live and probably my house would have been smashed into pieces by the pressure of the snow masses. In this case the dreaming of snow would turn into a nightmare.

Possible and impossible snow depths round my house.

(As always: click on the image to enlarge it.)

So, I’d like to have much more snow than now but not without limit. One or two meters would turn out just fine …

Stormy farewell Nov 23 2017

Today I sold my Saab 9-5 – the first car I ever had in my life. I bought it in March 2011 when I realised that a life without car is quite limiting in Northern Sweden.

Since then I have travelled to many places as e.g.: Abisko · Alta · Arvidsjaur · Bodø · Gällivare · Hammerfest · Höga Kusten · Jokkmokk · Kirkenes · Kiruna · Kusfors · Lofoten · Loma Vietonen · Luleå · Mosvik · Narvik · Nordkapp · Pajala · Senja · Solberget · Tromsø · Umeå · Vesterålen · Äkäslompolo · Örnsköldsvik

Do you know, how many places in the list are in the south of Skellefteå? Exactly three and Höga Kusten is the southernmost place I have gone by car because normally I head northwest or north.

Today however I sold my car to H., a friend, who lives in the county of Kalmar, more than 1000 km in the south. Funnily enough it’s the very same friend who visited me in 2011 and test-drove the car before I bought it. Back then he said “Well, if you do not buy this car, I’ll take it”. Well – now you got it H., with only six and a half years delay.

Since the Saab is a great winter car – it started without any problems in -35 °C – the elements bade it a stormy farewell with heavy wind gusts and squalls plus round 20 cm of new snow.

My new car is a Subaru Outback, which I bought half a year ago. Less comfortable than my Saab and a bit shorter but equipped with All Wheel Drive. Today I could test it and can confirm that the Subaru had no problems with driving through 20 cm of snow and crossing snowdrifts twice as high. I took some photos but soon drove home again since it was so stormy that it was almost impossible to take photos in the snowstorm. In addition to that I considered the weather potentially dangerous, at least near trees or power lines.

Some winter tours are already planned: A trip to the winter market in Jokkmokk and a longer trip to Kirkenes and the Varanger Peninsula, the northeasternmost part of Norway. And there’s probably much more to come …

Some hours later. It still was snowing. 40 to 50 cm of snow cover my back yard. The snow flakes melt on the lens and create funny plankton-like reflections. In Umeå it already had started to rain and here the temperatures were raising as well. A pity!

The first cold and sunny days Nov 16 2017

It became colder the last days. Yesterday temperatures were between -10 °C and -6 °C. Today it was warmer but still below zero the whole day. Especially the night before last was cold: coldest in Nattavaara with -23.8 °C but even in Åliden, just 33 km west, temperatures lay round -17 °C the whole night.

This morning I took the car to the bridge Sundgrundsbron that leads over the river Skellefteälven and pleasured in the wonderful sunrise colours. The sky in the east was coloured of warm shades of bright orange, while the sky in the west was more blue and purple, looking much colder.

Due to the stream parts of the Skellefteälven were still open but many parts were already covered with ice. Noises of cracking and clicking echoed through the air, clearly indicating that the ice was still fresh and quite thin.

A family of mute swans paddled over the river. Did they decide to stay or will they fly south? I hope they’ll cope the cold weather in case of staying.

If you look closer at the first photo you see a layer of clouds hovering above the horizon. The locals call this phenomenon “vinterväggen”, meaning “the winter wall”. It’s quite typical for this season and sometimes the whole eastern horizon is covered by a thick layer of clouds. According to a neighbour it’s this type kind of clouds that brings snow.

But according to the weather forecast tomorrow’s precipitation will come more as rain than snow.

Kayakvideo – my thing – winter kayaking in Skellefteå Nov 12 2017

Last summer I was asked by filmmaker Johan Granstrand if I would be interested in making a small film about my winter paddling. I felt honoured to be asked and gladly accepted.

Despite to this year we got a lot of snow already in the beginning of November last year. Since weather was nice (and cold) we decided to make the film on November 12, exactly one year ago.

I already blogged about this day in my post “Kayak – is it a boat or a sledge?”. Some weeks ago I got the permission to share the link to the video and that’s what I do today.

“Min Grej – Kayaking i Skellefteå på vintern” on Vimeo.

(I really like this film but I don’t like listening to me talking. My Swedish sounds awfully!)

Retrospect: a rainy autumn Nov 9 2017

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

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

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)

The autumn leaves … Oct 29 2017

Most bushes and trees have realised, that summer is history and even autumn has come to an end. They all shed their leaves in the last weeks. Only the lilacs are quite stubborn and try to keep their leafage with all their might.

The cold wind gusts of the last night however did not only bring a bit of snow but also started to tear of the still green lilacs leaves. One of these leaves landed on my car hood where it slowly snowed over.

So lilacs beware, winter is on its way!

Wet snow and slush Oct 26 2017

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.