A practical winter

The question has come up about what the weather is specifically like here under winter time. That's a pretty common question, and usually the first thing that I get asked when I say where I live. Strangely. no one asks about the summer weather. Despite it being lovely and warm and sunny. I guess that's because a lot of people live in palces where it gets warm, but not so many people live in places where it gets colder than normal. So that's more of a novelty factor. What is interesting is that hardly anyone asks what the weather is like in winter. They usually only ask how I cope with the winter. That implies that they believe they already know what the winter is like. The reality is that most don't. What they do, like I did, is to equate the winter here with the winter that they have themselves. And then try to imagine the same conditions only colder. Typically it's not a pleasant image. The winters I left in the south of NZ were windy, full or rain, hail, black ice, and the occasional dumping of wet soggy snow. If you were to imagine those conditions, only 30 deg C colder, it would be a pretty miserable place to live. Thankfully that's  not the case.

So, before we look at the reality of my Swedish winter, let's clarify some parameters. We live in the town of Boden in the province of Norrbotten. Boden is about 40 minutes south of the Arctic Circle. That means that we don't have 24 hour direct sunlight during the summer, but we do have 24 hour daylight. Boden is located about 40km inland from the coastal city of Luleå, which borders the Bay of Bothnia (the northern part of the Gulf of Bothnia which is the northern part of the Baltic Sea). While we live in Boden, we work each day in Luleå. So we've got a pretty good handle on both towns.

The winter climate, which the north of Sweden is known for, starts to makes itself known around late September / early October. The temperature moves down into the teens and you start to feel a few autumn winds. Luleå and Boden are a bit different in that respect. Being inland, Boden isn't subjected to coastal winds. So it's relatively calm. Luleå, on the other hand, can be a windy city. Especially where I work right down on the water front. Outside my office window there is a cable which stretches across the street. In the middle of the cable hangs a street light. If I look out my window and see that the lamp is lying horizontal rather than vertical, I try not to go out. Not that it happens all the time, mind.

So anyway, during September/October, the temperature drops a little, and the leaves on the trees start to dry up. The trees are usually bare in early October. Except for the evergreens, of course. It's a gradual downwards progression until mid November when it can get to freezing temperatures at night. What you have to watch for then is rain. Then you have ice. The good news is that it doesn't rain an aweful lot. So you don't get many times when ice on the road or footpaths is an issue. The local councils are very proactive and grit the footpaths at the first sign of a frost. The main streets of Boden and Luleå also have heated footpaths, so there's no ice issue there. Driving isn't a problem during winter. All cars are required to have both summer and winter wheels. Winter tyres can be an approved soft sticky rubber type or, like we have, tyres with small metal studs fitted. Winter tyres are allowed to be fitted between the start of October and the middle of April and are compulsary from December through March. So you can get around just fine. We are also fortunate that we have a proper traction control system in our car. It works much like an ABS system, but it will adjust the power to the wheels while accelerating, corner, even when just coasting. Money well spent.

November is when the snow often arrives, although it can sometimes not come until nearer to Christmas. The snow is where people get confused. Snow in the north of Sweden is not like snow in New Zealand. It's not even like snow in the south of Sweden. The snow, when it arrives, is a dry snow. It's not that wet mushy stuff which gets into everything and makes you cold. This is a powder snow which you can brush off your clothing while still staying dry. For the most part, once the snow arrives, it stays. It's not often that there's a sudden heatwave which melts the snow and then it snows again. The temperatures here are pretty stable. When it's the warm time of the year, it's warm. When it's cold, it's cold. You can rely on the temperatures.

It snows a lot during the winter. In Boden we have at least a 1 metre base. I calculate that by looking at how much taller our horse becomes during winter compared to the height of his paddock fences. You don't get a lot of big snow blizzards. I think I've only experienced one or 2 over the past 4 years. They are exciting. But it can sometimes trickle down with snow continuously for a week. Here again the local councils do a great job. Every time it snows they are out with snow ploughs on the roads and footpaths. I have to say the Boden is a little better at clearing snow than they are in Luleå. When we hear the ploughs out at 4am, we know there has been a snowfall over night. By the time we get up, all the loose snow has been ploughed away, leaving a packed base to walk and drive on.

The temperature is still falling, but it generally does it gradually and consistently. So you have time to adjust. I have an autumn jacket which keeps me nice and warm down to almost -15 deg C. Good clothing is essential. You don't need a lot, but you need the right stuff. Keeping warm isn't so much about bulk, it's about layers. I had to learn that. The idea is that you trap air between the layers of clothing. That air heats up, and gives you thermal insulation. So what you need is outer clothing which doesn't leak heat, allowing for that air to escape. If you can dust the snow off your jacket, you've got a good jacket. If the snow melts on your jacket, then you've got a heat-leaking jacket. And you don't want that. Below -15 deg, I haul out my winter coat. Both my autumn and winter coats are longer than I was used to. Not knee length, but they keep your bum warm. Bomber jackets are not a good idea. I have winter boots but I hardly ever use them. I most get around in normal training shoes with warm socks. If I'm going somewhere during winter it's not often that I'm walking more than 15 mintues. Plus I prefer the grip of my trainers over that of my expensive winter boots. The key is to remember to dress for the conditions BEFORE you open the door. There's no such thing as just "popping down the street".

Christmas time can be around -20 deg. Luleå and Boden are pretty much the same although, as I said earlier, it does blow more in Luleå. It's generally quite stable until early February when the temperature takes a more downward turn. This is when it can drop into the -30 range. For a few weeks. Below -30, you really don't want to be out more than you need to. I have good winter clothing, but I feel the cold start to seep in after about 20 minutes or so. Not really cold, but I can feel the difference. Even my winter gloves start to get a bit cold in the tips after about an hour. It can get colder, but not much more. People are often blabbering on about -45 deg and so forth. Yes, it has happened, but it's important to add that it only stayed at that extreme temperature for a few hours. The coldest I have had here in the past 4 years has been -35 deg C. It stayed that temperature for 2 days. Then it "warmed" up to -30 deg again. So it's good to keep a bit of scale in mind when listening to the tales.

While all this is going only, it's worth remembering that it's only cold outside. Inside, be it a house, shop, workplace, bus, it's always at least +22 deg C. Our apartment generally sits a couple of degrees warmer than that. So the effect of the weather is only when you are going between places. Obvious, but important to remember. Our car is parked in a heated garage which is always heated to +19 deg. So the car is warm when we get into it. If we park out in the street we plug the car into a heating post, which keeps both the engine and the interior of the car warm. We have a plug sticking out of our front bumper and we attach a cable to that and the other end of the cable to the heating post.

Late March/early April, the worst is over and the spring thaw starts. This isn't a fun time. Because the ground is frozen solid to about a 1 metre depth, the snow that melts on the top can't sink in. Instead it just pools there, waiting for the ground underneath to thaw. So it can get wet and slushy to go around in. There's not much that anyone can do about that. The same when the rivers and lakes start to thaw. The ice on the top has to sit there until the ice underneath thaws. So you can get some low level surface flooding. By the time Easter comes around it's all sorted and the temperatures are up again into the early teens.

Of course nature is never 100% stable, and the conditions do vary from year to year. But, within reason, what I've written is typically what you will find up here. Plus or minus a few degrees and a few centimetres of snow.