Christmas Sea
Christmas flood
Yesterdays Christmas was still a bit white and snowy but then – déjà vu – it got warmer and started to rain. At the same time the sea level was extremely high again: More than 100 cm above normal. I did the beach walk with chest waders and spikes and took the picture of one of the small pine trees with my underwater camera:
The locals that have their summer cottages on the near island Storgrundet came with their cars to check the sea level. They were a bit nervous because just now they cannot reach the island; neither by boat nor by foot. The ice itself is still thick but not at the borders where the warm weather melted it away.
Same day, another place: Skellefteälven – even more water than some weeks ago. The waterside promenade along the river had a layer of ice on the bottom and was flooded with up to 30 cm water.
Interesting weather, but I miss the snow.
Did anyone of you had a white Christmas?
In between the seasons
Today is winter solstice which means that it’s the shortest day of the year. For the astronomers winter starts today, for the meteorologists it already started on 1st December. But winter, well …
It has been a special winter so long this year. Again.
Beside of some colder days it has been too warm with more rain than snow. All minor streets are covered with a shell of wet ice and the thin leftover snow cover is icy, too.
It’s almost the same as last year. Or 2013. Or 2011. Perhaps it’s just the normal weather anomalies, but perhaps it’s already the ongoing climate shift and we will call that a normal winter twenty years from now. Future will show.
The water level in the Baltic Sea has been high for several weeks, today with +60 cm; +95 cm are predicted for Christmas Day. That’s what it looks like:
On other parts of the ice you could see wet snow mobile tracks, but I wouldn’t dare to enter the ice without asking the locals.
According to the forecast the weather won’t change much the next days and on Christmas Day it probably will rain. But there’re places way up north, where it will be even warmer this year: The forecast for Montréal in Canada predicts +17 °C for Christmas Eve!
Translation:
| English | German |
|---|---|
| winter solstice | Wintersonnenwende |
Another polar light
Just three-quarters of an hour ago on the near lake Snesviken.
Some notes: -12 °C outside of the house, probably colder on the lake. The jacket was not too warm. First time this winter, that I made some steps onto the ice of the lake. I just dared because of the many other footprints and the knowledge, that water is less than a meter deep at this place.
Långhällan – some kind of another world
Today it was even a bit colder as yesterday. When I left the house to make some photos, the thermometer showed -10 °C and it hardly became warmer today.
This time I drove to one of my favourite places nearby, Långhällan, where the coast is quite rocky. When I left the car to walk the remaining 250 meters I could already hear the waves breaking ashore. The first view of the rocky coast was like from another world. The higher parts of the rocks were covered with a bit of snow, while the lower rocks were crusted with a layer of ice. This layer will grow with every wave rolling ashore.
The next hour(s) I spend sitting and crawling on the ice covered rocks and tried to make pictures of the incoming waves. I took more than a hundred pictures but I’m not completely content yet. Anyway, it was just fun being outside and experiencing this fine weather.
Finally the sun came out and started to fill nature with light – first of soft pink, then of intense yellow and orange colours.
I made another “photo session” and took even more pictures of the waves, this time illuminated by the low sun, but time was short and the waves were less impressive.
Soon the sun vanished behind some trees and I walked along the coast were I spotted the next motives: Last day high water has surrounded the lower parts of the small bushes with a solid layer of ice, that gleamed and sparkled in the sun.
After a while I had enough of taking pictures and slowly returned to the car. Two photos from the way back through the forest. It got colder – down to -15 °C and the soft-edged snowy landscape made me feel, that I left the world Långhällan and I was back in my home world again. The only thing that lacks for a real winter: A bit more snow.
Appendix 1 – Things that I was glad to have today
- Warm cloths: insulated jacket and warm thermal pants, as well as warm gloves. I love winter but I don’t like to freeze.
- Warm and waterproof “Muck Boots” rubber boots that kept my feet warm and dry.
- A good camera, a good tripod and my favourite lenses.
- Spare batteries – a must-have when it’s cold.
- Most of all: My crampon-like spikes from Snowline – without them I wouldn’t have any chance to climb on the ice covered rocks.
Appendix 2 – making of
The first winter day in Skelleftehamn
After a period of weather with mild temperatures and rain it started to get colder yesterday and the last two centimetres of snow in Skelleftehamn didn’t melt away. Temperatures sank below zero yesterday afternoon and this morning the thermometer showed -7 °C. The morning was starry and above the western horizon the sky was already blue, even if sunrise was still two hours away.
A good day to make some winter photos.
The first one is shot at the kanotudden – the canoe bay which is a large bay of the Skellefteå river in Ursviken, 5km away. Parts of the bay are quite shallow and calm and so the whole bay is ice covered:
This photos shows the Skellefteå river near Stackgrönnan, 8km away. Even here the river is completely covered with ice. Sky gets brighter and some feathery clouds changed into light pink:
The next two photos are shot from almost the same place – Bergsbydammen (11 km away) – the only possibility to cross the river between Skelleftehamn and Skellefteå. The current round the dam is stronger and parts of the river are open. The first photo points west or upstream, the second photo points east or downstream.
Some hours later …
The next photo is made before sunset, which is hardly four hours after sunrise at this time of the year. This photo is made from the peninsula Rönnskär in Skelleftehamn. Probably my favourite photo of today.
That was my first winter day in Skelleftehamn. Now I’m longing for a long, cold winter with much snow and time for making more photos.
Falkträsket
Flood along the Skellefteälven
The river Skellefteälven had much water today. Water level was 87 cm above normal according to a hiker I met at the river today. The hiker had to turn because parts of the way were still under water just as the ground besides.
It was funny walking on this “way” – the ground was frozen, 15 cm water above, slightly frozen over, too. I even saw a fish fleeing my rubber boots under the thin ice cover. And I was so glad about my crampon-like spikes, that I had with me, since the ground was almost frictionless.
After a grey morning the weather was nice with blue sky and sun, but still much too warm for the season. I really wonder how the river succeeds in freezing over when it’s hardly frosty. I also wonder why the river ice can rise almost 90 centimetres without getting any visible cracks. Probably it’s quite soft.
Ten, fifteen centimeters above water level you could see ice round the branches and twigs of the smaller trees and bushes, marking the high water peak of last night. I had to crouch and lie down to make the next picture.
It was easier to make pictures of the beautiful frost patterns that covered the ground. By the way: These are colour photographs.
Räven raskar över isen
“Räven raskar över isen”, which means “The fox rushes over the ice” is a popular Swedish folksong which is performed as a singing game at midsummer.
Today I was out quite early, because the weather was still nice: -6 °C and not completely cloudy. And while I took some more images of the ice outside of Storgrundet, wondering when the ice will bear my weight I saw a fox crossing the ice and rushing from one island to the other. I immediately remembered the song.
(The photo itself is a cropped image, the fox was too far away for my 70-200 mm telephoto lens. By the way: the clouds were of an incredibly intense red – even more than the photos)
Soon more clouds came in and it started to get warmer. In the afternoon it started to rain transforming the cold roads into slippery, wet ice tracks. I would deeply recommend to wear broddar – spikes for your shoes when weather is like this.
Spying the land
Tomorrow I thought about paddling through the freshly snowy winter landscape. Is it realistic? Let’s check:
A: the snow warning
smhi (Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) released a class 1 warning for tonight: 10 – 15 cm snow should fall at the coastal areas of Västerbotten. But actually it’s too warm, most of the precipitation has come as sleet and rain. Probably we will have a centimeter of wet snow tomorrow, not much more.
B: the sea ice cover
smhi has another warning, this time for the sea: “higher than 80 cm above mean sea level.” – I took the car to Storgrundet and smhi was right: Parts of the beach are submarine now. But unfortunately the high water didn’t break the sea ice. The ice near the shore is quite soft, I could paddle through. But the rest? Will I manage to break through or do I have to give up?
C: the forecast
At 7:00 it will be clear sky and -6 °C. Nice weather, but at this time it’ll be pitch dark; sun rise is round 9:15. According to the forecast it will be cloudy at 9:00 and start to rain at 13:00. Not enough with that, smhi had another warning for tomorrow: wind will be round 30 knots, that’s round 60 km/h – too much for my kayaking abilities.
Let’s summarise: Hardly any snow, the ice maybe to thick to break, windy + cloudy + some rain later on. I guess, my kayak will stay in the garage tomorrow.