The Quiet Picture

What a strange winter. I think we’ve had a solid two months of cold weather, not a single day with temperatures above freezing. And now it’s really cold again, it was borderline too cold for me to want to go out, but in the afternoon the temperature crept up to -18ºC and it felt quite alright, properly dressed as I was. And then I came out from the protection of the forest and the wind hit me right in the face, instantly freezing my cheekbones. I was glad I had been smart enough to wear a scarf so I could pull it over my face, it’s not often I cover my face because I don’t particularly enjoy breathing through a cloth but rather that than frostbites.

I’m talking more about the weather and less about photography because there’s not a lot to say about photography to be honest. The entire February has been a struggle, every picture feels very forced because the thought of letting an entire weekend pass by without taking any pictures seems like a waste so I’m just scraping the proverbial barrel in pure desperation. But when everything else fails, there’s always some barn door that I haven’t shot yet!

It’s been a cold weekend and I skipped my planned excursion yesterday, so I was really hoping I could go out today. By noon the temperature was up to -18°C so I dressed warmly and set out. And it wasn’t actually as bad as I expected, breathing was my biggest concern and that was no problem at all and as long as you keep moving at a good pace, you generate enough body heat to keep the extremities warm as well. It’s only when you stop to take pictures that you can feel the heat dissipate quickly… just as well that I didn’t have many photo ops then. Only two in fact, one in the way out and another in the same place on the way home – the light had changed so it was worth shooting twice, LOL.

But yes, I was a little bit surprised that I didn’t have to use the camera more often than that. The sceneries are wonderful to look at, but it just doesn’t quite work in the viewfinder. A little bit too much wind in conjunction with the snowfall earlier in the week so it’s not all photogenic. But it was a nice hike in any case, I was positively surprised to see that the cold temperature wasn’t a problem so if we get another of these cold weekends, I shouldn’t allow myself to be stuck inside four walls.

The cold spell has finally broken. I always say that it isn’t a proper winter if the temperature doesn’t dip below -20 degrees centigrade but four weeks of it in a row… is a bit a much, only a handful of days when it wasn’t quite that cold. Somehow I prefer my photo excursions without frozen toes, fingers, face and camera gear. When the tripod leg locks freeze, it’s too cold for photography! Anyway, today it was only -12°C so really a pleasant day to be out, I picked the afternoon so I could see the sunset. It wasn’t very interesting though because it was all clear skies, so what I would really have needed was an interesting silhouette against the blue/orange post-sunset gradient. But all of these cold temperatures also mean that it hasn’t been snowing, and the existing snow we have is looking a bit old. The scenery is somehow broken with only patches of snow hanging on the trees, but sometimes you find something that the wind hasn’t destroyed yet so you just have to take the opportunity then.

If November was unusually warm then December was unusually cold, the last half of it anyway. Perfect winter month, actually. A nice mixture of winter weather with some days with constant sunshine (well, those 4 hours of it anyway) and some days with constant snowfall but most days just simply winter grey.

Temperature (High): 0°C
Temperature (Low): -21°C
Temperature (Average): -8°C

Barometer (High): 1028 mbar
Barometer (Low): 989 mbar
Barometer (Avg): 1009 mbar

Totally sunny days: 3

Rain: 3 mm
Days with rain: 1

Snow cover (High): 42 cm
Snow cover (Low): 6 cm
Snow cover (Avg): 20 cm
New snow: 48 cm
Days with snowfall: 20

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January 2009
February 2009
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April 2009
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June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009

I took the car to work for a change. Not perhaps the smartest choice of day to do it, because it’s exceptionally cold at the moment. But no worries about the car though, and it did give me a great opportunity to see how the temperature fluctuates depending on altitude and relative air humidity. On the way home, at around Färila it was -25ºC. When I was driving up Gilleberget (the first big hill west from Näsberg), for a moment I saw a balmy -18ºC in the display but then it got colder again until I reached the highest point on the road and it was back to -18ºC. But as I was approaching the lakes (Dåasen and Loossjön), the temperature dipped all the way down to -29ºC. After Loossjön it’s almost all uphill home to me and when I parked the car, it was “only” -23ºC.

So that’s something for me to keep in mind when I go on a photo excursion. If the weather is cold at home, I’d better be prepared that it’s at least 5 degrees colder in whatever destination I have chosen around Los.

But then on the other hand, while it’s not quite as cold up here as it is in the “lowlands”, our average temperature around the year is cooler. Which means that we get snow earlier and it stays better and there’s more of it during the winter – me likes! Living on top of a hill at 420 meters above sea level, it’s all good…

SMHI says that this November is one of the warmest ever, warmest since 2000 anyway. I remember November 2000 quite well because I moved to Sweden right at the end of October; it was snowing when I got off the train and I trudged to the hotel through wet snow and feeling quite happy about it, actually. If there’s one thing I missed when I lived in England it was a proper winter, so a snowy welcome was just the ticket for me – the only problem was that the snow melted away quickly and for the rest of the November (and most of December) the weather wasn’t radically different from England. But then the snow finally arrived just in time for Christmas, and I was smiling every time I stepped outside! Let’s hope I don’t have to wait until Christmas this year. At the moment it’s snow on the ground, but it will apparently get warmer next weekend again.

Temperature (High): 7°C
Temperature (Low): -6°C
Temperature (Average): 0°C

Barometer (High): 1022 mbar
Barometer (Low): 981 mbar
Barometer (Avg): 1001 mbar

Totally sunny days: 0

Rain: 71 mm
Days with rain: 16

Snow cover (High): 9 cm
Snow cover (Low): 0 cm
Snow cover (Avg): 1 cm
New snow: 22 cm
Days with snowfall: 9

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January 2009
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September 2009
October 2009

My cold is still keeping me at home, I’m not too sick not to work but I’m not well enough to travel to work and sit around other people all day either. So I’m working from home; nice to have that option. This morning when I woke up, the landscape had transformed – it looks like winter now! And no, I didn’t go walkabout to photograph anything, if I’m too sick to go to work then I’m too sick to go photograph, fair is fair. The picture is the scene I see from my living room window! At the moment it’s already raining, so the snow won’t last much longer. But it was a 13 cm layer this morning, a promise of things to come…

But oh how I need some fresh air, the outside looks so inviting even with the melting snow and fog. I’ve been cooped up in the flat since Tuesday, I’m going crazy!

The winter is making itself heard. Or seen. We got quite a few days with snowfall and twice we ever got a snow cover to speak of, but because the temperatures were constantly hovering around zero, the snow was gone overnight or during the day so I didn’t have any snow left at my snow meter. The rain millimeters contain some melt snow though.

Temperature (High): 5°C
Temperature (Low): -3°C
Temperature (Average): 1°C

Barometer (High): 1032 mbar
Barometer (Low): 978 mbar
Barometer (Avg): 1012 mbar

Totally sunny days: 5

Rain: 55 mm
Days with rain: 13

Snow cover (High): 0 cm
Snow cover (Low): 0 cm
Snow cover (Avg): 0 cm
New snow: 0 cm
Days with snowfall: 6

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2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009

It was such a nice weather that I couldn’t resist going for a walk.

-1ºC, windy and – snowing. 5cm so far, still coming down.

For some reason I didn’t see anyone else out. Not even footprints in the snow.

September 2009 was an unusually warm September. This may not be reflected in the observations though, because most of that exceptionally fine weather happened during my vacation in Finland. So 11 days of observations are missing from the middle of the month.

Temperature (High): 17°C
Temperature (Low): 1°C
Temperature (Average): 11°C

Barometer (High): 1012 mbar
Barometer (Low): 987 mbar
Barometer (Avg): 1002 mbar

Total of sunny days: 0

Rain: 65 mm

Days with rain: 10

2007
2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009