It looks like winter has come back to Tromsø. At four o’clock the temperature fell below zero, at 17:30 the first heavy snow shower arrived and at 22:00 we got wind gusts up to 18 m/s. It’s not a lot of snow that fell, but the wind gusts take the snow from the ground and blow it through the streets in metre high clouds. Winter parka time, at least when I took this photo.
Last Thursday I visited the icebreaker Kronprins Haakon in the port of Tromsø. Not to join an expedition but only for a couple of hours. I wanted to check some code that is supposed to run on the ship later this year. This is part of my work as a software developer and data manager at the Norwegian Polar Institute. When I run code in the office I always have to simulate the systems running on the vessel and I was glad that the software actually worked with the real ship’s system as intended.
“Takk for sist” – thanks for the last time – you say in Norway, when you haven’t seen each other for a while. I’ve been on several cruises with Kronprins Haakon and so I know part of the crew and they know me. “Takk for sist, Roy”. “Takk for sist, Ronny”. “Takk for sist. (I forgot your name, sorry.)”
This year, the budget is far too tight to allow me another cruise and no one knows next year’s budget. But three expeditions I’ve done already. Since I’m a software developer I wrote some code to create the ship’s tracks from these expeditions as “GeoJSON”, a file format that you can easily load in the open source GIS software QGIS. Here is a Screenshot I made. Greenland to the left, Svalbard to the right:
Arven etter Nansen JC3 · Arctic Ocean 2023 I · Fram Strait 2024
Just now (2025-04-06T19:31:54Z) Kronprins Haakon is in the Svovelbukta in southern Spitsbergen. I however will continue office work in Tromsø tomorrow and improve the code I’ve written. Hopefully I can try it out again when Kronprins Haakon is in Tromsø again. There are several opportunities.
It has become a tradition on my blog to post about the first tussilago sightings each year. This year, I spotted the first blooming tussilago flowers in Tromsø just today. One was in the centre, another near the Jekta shopping centre. Let’s call it a herald of spring, even though real spring weather will probably still be weeks away.
These are no black-and-white photos. It is normal colour photos in a wintry landscape of black and white. When it is as cloudy as on Annika’s and my ski tour on Friday and Saturday, then the bright colours seem to have vanished from the landscape. The snow seems to be white, the clouds seems to grey, the rocky mountain parts to be black and so do the many birch trees. But if you look closer, you see that snow hardly ever is of pure white. Here, it might have a green shade; over there, a blue tint; and in an hour, a hue of purple.
And suddenly it looks wintry again in Tromsø. About 30 cm of snow fell in the last two days. Yesterday I walked home from work, today I took the skies.
It is so much fun to ski through the wintry forests on the top of the island Tromsøya even when the snow is as warm and sticky as today.
Annika and I are in Obbola, my “home home”. In the morning we get visitors. Three deer stand in our garden – always alert. Are they happy, that much of the snow is gone?
In my lunch break I am kayaking round the island Bredskär. That’s just 3 km. There is still some ice round the rocks at the shore, but much snow and ice has melted away the last weeks. What a warm winter.
Annika and I take the car to Tromsø. We will make a stopover in Jokkmokk, because the total distance is almost 1000 km. Hejdå home home!
In warm and sunny weather we head northwards to Piteå and then northwest to Jokkmokk. Now we are north of the Polar Circle.
In Jokkmokk we meet a good friend and take a walk round the lake Talvatissjön. Around the sun a halo appears .
After a good sleep in the hostel Åsgård Annika and I continue our car trip. Gällivare, Kiruna, Abisko. Torneträsk – the 6th largest lake in Sweden – is still completely frozen. Good for recreation such as skiing.
Parts of the road were closed some days ago. You can still see some remains of the snow storm.
Some weeks ago it would have been impossible to drive from Jokkmokk to Tromsø in daylight. Anyhow two days ago astronomical spring has started and the days are as long as everywhere. After hours of driving the sun is low but visible. It illuminates the beautiful clouds. And then we arrive at our apartment in Tromsø, my “work home”.
On Sunday the weather gets nasty. Max temperature: +9 °C and wind gusts up to 23.5 m/s. Annika and I take a promenade anyhow. With spiked shoes because some of the ways are just bare, wet ice and the friction is next to zero. We arrive at home before the rain. Good luck.
On my way to work I spot the first spring flowers in front of the Tromsø Cathedral. I could believe in spring …
… but do know the forecast and it is correct: Snow, snow, snow on the next day. So it looks like in the morning outside of the apartment …
… and so in the afternoon, when I walked home.
So we did not solely travelled between countries but also between seasons. Anyhow I hope for some more winter days (or weeks), before my seasonal clock will jump to spring mode. Perhaps in mid-May?
No paddling today. The reason, why? Strong winds and rough sea with breaking waves.
The wind blew onshore, carrying the sea spray several metres inland. Normally spray is liquid, but today it consisted mostly of peaces of crushed ice. Ice from floes that the waves had been crushing into smithereens. So yes – ice can fly, at least a few metres.
A result of these conditions was the ice wall you can see in the front of some of the photos. It was built today and was up to one metre high.
So as I said, no paddling today and no winter bath either.
It’s less the temperature than the wind who makes the sea ice on the Baltic Sea vanish. Although we had -10 °C this morning the sea was more or less open. Time for a slightly longer kayak tour in the afternoon under a blue sky enjoying the calm weather.
But still there is some ice shield attached to the coast. As the days before I push myself forward using ice spikes.
First the ice holds then I crash through. It takes me 10 minutes to cross 100 metres of ice until I reach open water. Yay!
I decide to paddle round the islands Obbolstenarna. There is hardly any ice left on the way there but at the eastern shore it still looks pretty wintry.
The western part of Obbolstenarna however looks like another season. Is winter over now? Anyhow, time to kayak home.
If you look carefully at the photo with the red bow of my kayak you see that the water is very smooth but with some crystal like structures. Let’s take a close look:
Despite of the sun air temperature is still below zero. Not only the sea water on the kayak freezes but new ice is also formed on the water surface. It is thin and fragile but so soft, that the smooth waves do not break it. An even closer photo (heavily edited):
Through this smooth though icy water I paddle back until I reach the ice edge again. I choose another place, take a run-up and paddle onto the ice. I’m lucky. This ice is more stable and I do not break through. I slide back to the shore. Meanwhile the sun is already low. I was slower than planned, because it took some time to take all these photos.
Just one day later the situation has changed on the Baltic Sea with a lot of more open water than ice. So the kayak season was continued today.
