It’s summer Jun 11 2017

When you look out of your window and see long green grass in the urgent need of being cut, where 4 weeks ago a snow shower covered the whole garden with white …

When you go along the river Skellefteälven and finally other flowers started to bloom than only tussilago …

When nights are no dark nights any longer and it will take many weeks until you can see the first stars again …

When you paddle on the river Skellefteälven, barefoot, just with t-shirt and shorts, not with a drysuit as three weeks ago and you even enjoy becoming wet by some breaking waves, because it’s so refreshing …

… then it’s summer in Northern Sweden.

And summer is more than welcome after the long winter. By the way, summer solstice is just 10 days away.

From winter to summer in seven days. May 21 2017

I hardly can remember the intense snow fall a week ago, when I look at a day as today.

Today in a nutshell: sun, shorts, temperatures between 15° and 22° C, sandals, blue sky, t-shirt only, ice cream.

It looked like early spring with only some of the birches starting to come into leaf but it felt more like high summer with today’s temperatures.

Annika and I have been in the “Arboretum Norr” today, just five days later as last year. Last year we could see many different species of flowers, this year only some, mostly Tussilago and Alpine Penny-cress, the two flowers that use to bloom first in the season. No wonder, April and May has been colder than last year. But today warmth attracted many butterflies, such as this European peacock.

And Tussilago is a beautiful flower anyway.

Wonderful rain May 19 2017

Yesterday it started to rain, just when I entered the car to drive to Umeå. It drizzled and the road started to get wet. On my way the rain increased and became more and more intense.

Between Lövånger und Sikeå it just poured down and my windscreen wipers had hard work to do.

You may wonder why I write a blog article about rain and show a really poor photo. When you come from counties such as Germany or the UK you’re probable used to rain.

Me too, but I can hardly remember when the last rain happened here. The whole April and the first half of May were so cold that almost all precipitation came as snow, not rain.

Sometimes we had got a warmer day with sun now and then – one day I saw even the first butterfly of the season – but the Swedish weather forecast predicted cold snowy weather again and quite often they were right.

And so we got snow in Skelleftehamn 6 days ago, or 9 days ago, or 12 days ago, or 27 days ago, or 34 days ago, or many other days in between, where I either had been away or just didn’t want to blog about off-season snow falls again.

That’s why I was so glad about yesterday’s and last night’s intense rain falls. They seems to end a period of an “eternal almost-winter” and hopefully will have started a period of warm spring. And one day – so it is told by the old legends – even the bleak trees may start to come into leaf and the world will become green again.

103rd February May 14 2017

Today morning was the 103rd February. It has been so cold and snowy the night and morning that I refused to call it 14th May.

Some random photos, taken between 6 and 7 o’clock where temperatures had started being above zero again:

Gåsören in the distance, half hidden in the snow

It took the sun some time to melt away the late snow, but this evening most of the snow was gone and I was content to call today’s date 14th May again.

Winter is finally gone. Winter is gone? Well, if you’ll look at the photos below you see that most of the lake Rudtjärnen is still covered with ice and that due to the cold temperatures this evening even the open parts starts to freeze over again.

But hey, that’s part of Spring, too. So I just say: winter is finally gone! Am I right? We’ll see …

Well, Spring, we’re waiting … May 13 2017

Another snow shower in Skelleftehamn. On ~~102nd February~~ 13th May! Winter is stubborn this year.

One and a half hours later … still snowing …

Next morning: In the night it was snowing strongly and the temperature was round 0°C. At 5 o’clock 8 cm of snow covered the car, the roof and the grass in the garden. But it already had been starting to get warmer and the snow had started to melt. That’s the ugly side of snow weather. I guess in the afternoon the snow will have melted away completely.

And then, Spring? It’s your turn. Show, what you can!

Late spring snow May 10 2017

When I came back from Germany on Sunday it snowed. On Monday and Tuesday some snow fell, too. And so it did today. In the morning a snow shower arrived that was so severe, that everything was white again after a short time. It was quite unbelievable that we have the 10th of May!

Anyway just like the last days today’s snow melted away quite soon and two hours later it was gone. Hardly believable that this short winter-intermezzo had taken place today.

But the conditions here are nothing compared to other places:

In Katterjåkk in the Swedish mountains there’s still 183 cm of snow.
On the mountain Mannen (1294 m) in Rauma, Norway it’s almost twice as much: 359 cm!
The German mountain Zugspitze (m) tops it with 410 cm today!
Oh yes – I almost forget – Fonna near Jondal in Norway is a sure bet for snow. 500 cm at 1200m, 800 cm at 1450 m!

So, compared to other places we already have Spring in Skelleftehamn despite of the snow showers and the low temperatures. Let’s see how it will be in six weeks. That’s midsummer!

A short look at Storgrundet May 8 2017

I woke up at 5:45. That’s quite early even for me. On the other side it would be much too late for photographers who love sunrise, because the sun had been risen already at 3:36.

I took the car to Storgrundet to check the ice. I guess, half of the ice is gone, the other half is grey and instable. I guess, the remaining ice is soon gone. Then I can start paddling without being surrounded by ice.

Anyway temperatures were down to -3 °C and it was quite windy at the coast. This still felt more wintry than springlike.

Storgrundet II – here mostly ice-covered

Returning home May 7 2017

I’m home again in Skelleftehamn and to my big surprise all snow round the house has been melted away, even the big snow piles in the front yard. Only in the shadow of my neighbours garage there’s still a patch left. When I had left the house 12 days ago there had been at least 20 cm of snow in the backyard.

Today I travelled back from Munich and from the airplane Stockholm—Skellefteå it looked more wintry than in Skelleftehamn. Almost all lakes were still completely covered with ice and there still was a closed snow cover in some forests, in the shadow or on north-facing slopes. The big fields however were free of snow and of an autumn-like brown, since hardly anything has started to green, neither grass nor the birches. Spring still hasn’t arrived yet.

View from the plane somewhere in Skellefteå municipality

Right after the airport bus started its tour to town a strong snow shower poured down and within a minute the ground was white again. But although temperatures are still quite chilly with temperatures round 0 °C such snow doesn’t last long.

In Skellefteå I had to wait 45 minutes for the bus home. I was glad of my fleece jacket. And my light-weighted down jacket. And my soft-shell. And my woollen cap. I put it all on while waiting for the bus. What a chilly contrast to the weather in Bavaria the day before, that not only was quite sunny but also up to 20 °C warmer.

April weather Apr 13 2017

It snowed, dark clouds sped past the coast, the sun illuminated the fresh snow and the gusty wind blew it around. The weather changed constantly this morning. The wind squalls made the temperatures of -3 °C appear much colder and I regretted that I went outside without windproof trousers and warm gloves. That’s the post-wintry release of Norrlands April weather.

The easter days shall be wintry as well with temperatures between -8 °C and 0 °C, at least here in Skelleftehamn. In the mountains however they’ll probably drop to -20 °C or even below.

Early April weather (a short log book) Apr 5 2017

Friday, 31 Mars: I rehearsed for next days jazz concert with AÅO Trio and Hans Åkesson and it was sunny in Skellefteå.

Saturday, 1 April: I played that concert at the very same place and it snowed. April weather!

Sunday, 2 April: It continued snowing and a new layer of 5 cm of snow covered Skelleftehamn. What a nice birthday present for a winter lover like me!

Still Sunday: While the ice fishing season in Skelleftehamn is finally over, the ice fishers on the big lake Burträsket beside the town Burträsk took advantage of the last days of save ice. And it was many of them!

Monday, 3 April: We had a great late winter day with blue sky above our heads and fresh, white snow under our feet, when we took a promenade along the river Skellefteälven. We – that’s not only Annika and me but also my mother who visited me for some days. It was the first time that she came outside of the summer months and I’m really glad that she got some nice winter impressions.

Yesterday, 4. April: Yesterday it was almost 13 °C in town.

Today, 5. April: it was colder and partly cloudy, but we got a fantastic sundown. What a colourful contrast to the dull weather the ice fishers had experienced.

And the weather next weekend? Well, I don’t know and the weather institute neither. That’s two weekend forecasts of the SMHI – the 1st from Monday afternoon, the 2nd from Tuesday morning:

Forecast for the weekend as shown on 3 April, 16:03

Forecast for the weekend as shown on 4 April, 06:42