A bit of cold Nov 11 2016

Tomorrow I want to canoe. So I checked the potential starting points today. Where could I set in my kayak?

Näsgrundet

That’s where Skelleftehamn’s pilot station is. As expected the Baltic Sea is completely open. Here it would be possible to start the tour, but I had to go 2.5 km.

Killingörviken

The nearest place, only 600 metres away, but this small bay has been already ice-covered for some days.

Storgrundet

We’ll, this should rather be frozen over, too, but to my surprise there was a broad band of open water left. I guess that the water level, that changed several times the last days prevented parts of the water surface to freeze over. The distance to Storgrundet is 1.6 km and I think I’ll try out this place tomorrow.

Anyway I’m not completely sure, if there will be open water tomorrow in the morning, too. Today has been the first day, where the temperature dropped below -10 °C and maybe there will be ice on today’s open water tomorrow. Either a bit that cracks when you traverse it by kayak or a bit more making it impossible to squeeze through.

-10.4 °C at 15:53 – the coldest temperature of the season in Skelleftehamn

Seasons are a bit in between. The open sea is completely free of ice beside of some sheltered bays having a thin, but solid ice cover. When such an ice cover breaks in the waves, pancake ice is formed. Pancake ice are ice floes that move, twist and turn, scrubbing each other until they are round, like pancakes. I found some of them when I drove to the peninsula Rönnskär to have a look at the sundown. They floated in the sheltered boat harbour near the shore.

#snowember16 – part V Nov 7 2016

This article is part of the series “2016-11: #snowember16”.

Last night it snowed another 15 cm, increasing the snow depth in my backyard to 76 cm and finally the fence in my backgard was gone, hidden by the snow.

You see, that the picture looks a bit hazy? That’s because it snowed still a lot, when I made this picture this morning at 6 o’clock. You see that blending light to the right of the house? It’s a tractor that already had started to plough away the snow.

Some hours later Annika and I took the car to Bureå – another “snow pocket” nearby. As a matter of fact I was curious, if there was even more snow as here in Skelleftehamn.

Finally I could take a picture of the beautiful pavilion Åbacka paviljong which lies near Bureå on the other side of the E4. A huge pile of snow left by a tractor came in handy to get a higher perspective.

And we saw buried cars. And half buried tractors, and really buried cars, and a quite snowed in bicycle.

I heard from some people living in Bureå, that at least one meter of snow has fallen, but I couldn’t find such places in town. I seemed to be as much snow as home, perhaps a bit more.

When we took a detour, left Bureå and headed to Burvik over the hill Bureberget (altitude: 99 meters!) the snow walls at the sides of the road increased. I stopped the car on the side of the street and just took some steps into the forest. Here the snow was really much deeper, I should say round 110 cm! Here seems to be Bureå’s “snow center”.

I left Annika at the bus station and took the E4 to Skellefteå where I had a meeting at one o’clock. Well, I tried to take the E4, but from the next exit on it was closed due to an accident. I left the E4 and took a secondary route. There were many trucks and other cars taking the same detour and since the road was quite snowy and it still snowed the drive was at quite a low pace. Following a truck is no fun since you hardly see anything beside of the white snow whirling through the air. That is called snörök – “snow smoke”. Sometimes it was not easy to follow the street because all meadows and fields are just as white as the road and the red sticks marking the road hardly help in the snörök.

I took it easy, stopped the car in one of the rare snow-free parking bays and made a photo from the collapsed barn buried in the deep snow.

When I came home the snow fall had stopped and the streets where ploughed. On each corner you could see piles of snow up to four meters high. And finally even my elder bush seemed to realise that summer is over and has started to cast of its leaves.

Tomorrow I’ll take a day off and enjoy the early winter. Skis or snowshoes? I haven’t decided yet.

Some other snow depth:

The neighbour at the other side of the street: 86 cm.
Some people in Bureå: 100 cm, already four days ago.
Someone in Lycksele in the inland: 2 cm!

#snowember16 – part III Nov 5 2016

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 Ursviken

Storgrundet – 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.

#snowember16 – part II Nov 4 2016

This article is part of the series “2016-11: #snowember16”.

Often the first snow in Skelleftehamn already comes in late October and melts away the other day. Larger snowfalls can occur in November – in 2010 for example the snowfall lasted several days and covered the ground with 70 centimetres of snow.

This years first snow fall was already on Monday but rain melted it away the very same day.

On Wednesday however it started to snow and since then quite a lot of snow has fallen in Skelleftehamn. I have round 35 centimetres in my backyard and more is forecasted for the next days. This is a bit unusual for the beginning of November where mostly it’s just dark and wet.

You could call me snow-addicted, I just love snow – the more, the better! And so I’ve been in great mood since yesterday that the rainy tristesse was replaced by the grandeur of snow.

Six photos from today:

The 1st one this morning in front of the house.
The 2nd and 3rd at the coast of the Baltic Sea. It was quite windy and the snow just bucketed down.
The 4th and 5th on the way to Bureå showing some houses of Örviken and the bay Ytterviksfjärden.
The 6th in Bureå showing the river Bureälven. (Both Bureå and Skelleftehamn are known for severe snowfalls.)

#snowember16 – part I Nov 2 2016

This article is part of the series “2016-11: #snowember16”.

Hooray! Winter is here! I want 4 meters of snow and -45 °C already in November. (Well, a bit less is ok, too.)

I saw the first snow of the season two days before on my way back home from Umeå. The forecast predicted more snow to come today – even a class 1 snowfall warning had been issued – but not in Skelleftehamn where rain was forecasted.

Skelleftehamn showed only some patches of slush-like snow this morning as a result of last nights precipitations. Skellefteå got two centimeters of snow and experienced some wet snow showers today. On the way back to Skelleftehamn more snow lay on the ground. Between town and home it’s mostly a bit colder with neither city nor the Baltic Sea directly nearby. In Skelleftehamn itself however the snow has been almost rained away and the thermometer showed +2 °C.

Today I had a rehearsal with a new jazz trio in Kroksjön, which means hook lake and is just eight kilometres south from Skellefteå. It was just slightly colder there and the snow less wet. Round ten centimetres had fallen down – still wet but white and beautiful to look at. I took some photos after the rehearsal (I always have a tripod in the car).

When I made these photos it didn’t snow anymore, temperatures where below zero and I could see some stars. When I was on the 364 to Skellefteå it started snowing again, but not much, so I took the E4, the fastest way to Skelleftehamn. Well, normally. Today it took much more time. The snow fall intensified more and more and the visibility was really poor. Instead of 110 km/h I hardly dared to drive 70.

Another car tailgated me, eager to overtake. Finally the E4 became two-lane and the car driver overtook me. I really had to smile, because now – without my backlights in front – the other driver was forced to slow down as well, driving exactly the same tempo I had been using all the time.

It wasn’t easy but I found the exit to Skelleftehamn. The snow fall intensified even more and I slowed down further. Using the full beams the approaching snow looked like a tunnel of stars when a space ship goes into some kind of faster-than-light hyperdrive. That’s what it looks like (imagine that in fast motion):

“Hyperspeed” feeling when driving through night and snow

Funnily enough the heavy snow fall decreased when I approached Skelleftehamn and stopped when I arrived home.

Now at 23:30 we have ca. 5 cm of snow and it started snowing a bit again. If the forecast is right we will get permanent frost on Friday and 30 cm of snow from Friday until Monday morning.

The first snowfall Oct 31 2016

After yesterdays sunny autumn walk I drove back to Skelleftehamn today. When I left Umeå round 7 o’clock the sky was mostly blue. On the E4 I could see orange-grey low hanging clouds ahead. Near Ånäset it started to snow. Some of the snow showers were quite intense and soon covered the roads and the ploughed fields with white snow.

Skelleftehamn is still warmed by the near Baltic Sea and so it was round about 2 centigrades warmer. Enough to let the snow melt away.

Taking advantage of the sun Oct 30 2016

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.

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.

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.

Picking cloudberries Aug 7 2016

One week ago I still was in Mosvik in Norway. On Saturday we went out to pick cloudberries. These berries that look a bit like orange raspberries are rich in taste and very healthy due to the high amount of vitamin C and trace elements. There’s only one disadvantage: They can be quite hard to pick.

First of all they prefer wet and swampy soil. Then they ripe in July, the heyday of mosquitos and biting horseflies. Then they grow quite solitary – one berry here, one over there.

H., J., F. and I were quite lucky last Saturday when we collected two buckets of these little delicacies for it rained almost the whole day. And much rain means less mosquitos. When we came home, A. directly started to make jam from our collected cloudberries. One glass of jam I took home. It is still closed and I will save it for later. I love cloudberries!

Translation:

English	German	Swedish	Norwegian
cloudberry	Moltebeere	hjortron	multe

A trip above the treeline Jul 30 2016

Today the weather was really nice in Venneshamn in Norway. I took the car to drive to a mountain area not far away. At least, if you can fly … . If you take the car in Norway, there’s always at least one fjord you have to drive round, in this case the Verrasundet. So it took a bit longer than excepted taking the ways 191, 193 and 720 round the fjord. Finally I approached the street to the lake Ormsetvatnet. Street, well … it’s more like a steep gravel path, that you can drive up some kilometres to a parking place. The last kilometre to the lake is closed for cars and I had to walk it.

At Ormsetvatnet I crossed a dam wall, walked up a tree covered slope and soon was above the treeline. To be honest, I’m not too fond of forests, when it comes to taking pictures and I’m always glad, when I leave the trees behind when doing a mountain trip.

Now I was on a hilly plateau, the Vakkerheia. Some of the flat mountain tops were marked with piles of stones.

In the plain valley between the hilly tops the ground is soft and wet. Sometimes I had to go round shallow ponds and bogs, but mostly the ground was easy to go. In and round the swampy ponds the cotton grass was blooming. To my big delight there were many cloudberries plants growing in the lesser wet parts and the berries were ripe and ready to eat!

Picking cloudberries can be tedious, because of the many bloodthirsty horseflies that seem to guard them. I think, I slew most of them, but some bit me anyway.

After some hours of a really relaxed mountain hike I took another way back until I came to the gravel road again, where my parked car waited for me.

Half a day later

A thunderstorm approaches from the west. The center seems to be above the very same area that I wandered some hours earlier. The thunder and lightnings were as impressive as the intense colours, that I could see from the other side of the fjord. I was glad, that I haven’t been on that plateau – there would be hardly any place to seek shelter from the massive rain fall or to protect from the dangerous lightnings.

Addendum

And since we’re living in the age of selfies …

Sweden blue, Norway grey? Jul 23 2016

Sometimes it’s fun to use clichés. Yesterday there was such an opportunity on my way from Umeå, Sweden to Mosvik, Norway.

A neighbour once told me that it’s so beautiful in Norway. More beautiful than in Sweden! But he quickly added: “But we (in Sweden) have the better weather”. Perhaps he’s right. The whole way from Umeå was warm and sunny with some stratus clouds, but western from Åre, when I approached Norway I felt like driving into the dark grey landscape of another continent:

And then the rain showers came. Sometimes it just poured down so much, that the windscreen wipers hardly managed to shovel the rain from the windscreen. But I have to be fair:

It’s not the country that creates this type of weather, it’s the mountains and the Norwegian Sea. The photo is still made in Sweden, 40 km from the Norwegian border. And when I left the mountains behind, the sun came out again and laid a wonderful soft and warm light onto the landscape.