Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Stockholm, Sweden’s International Weather Report

This post goes out to BGC:

Here it is; your personal international weather report from Stockholm, Sweden. And it’s official. Spring has sprung (damn that was cliché… oh well). According to the Swedish government, or weather bureau, or whoever is in charge five days in a row of plus degrees means spring. (I think it’s five at least.) And parts of Sweden have already measured up. Mostly Skåne, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s good enough for me. Plus, there are flowers blooming.

Of course, for those of us who love cold and winter this is lame. Not because I hate spring, but because I hate that I never got a winter. This is Sweden. Stockholm, Sweden. Cold weather. Snow. Ice. Instead it was like Oregon. I left Oregon for a reason. That reason was rain. And hippies.

Some people are clamoring about global warming. And other, cooler, less reactionary people understand that aberrations happen. All I know is that there wasn’t a whole lot of snow. And I have yet to go skiing once. Or sledding for that matter. Which sucks. So I drove to work yesterday.

On a plus note though Sweden is getting lighter. Finally. Tomorrow we hit the official 11 hours of daylight mark. It’s gone quick. And I get to go to work in the light. And come home in the light. Which makes a world of difference.

And I learned something else the other day. Apparently SAD (seasonal affective disorder) can also strike in the spring. This was news to me. I was under the impression that it only got you in the winter when the light was fading and the blue skies were replaced by an endless blackness reaching to the Arctic Circle. I was wrong. SAD has something to do with the amount of light. Regardless of coming or going. So as the light starts streaming back into our Swedish lives sluggishness, fatigue, lack of motivation might strike.

Granted, the common Swede on the train in the mornings looks sluggish, tired, and seems more concerned with ways of taking advantage of the social benefits than actually working. But maybe that’s just my SAD talking.

5 comments:

  1. this must have made international news. i had someone today (here in Colorado!!) mention they had heard they were having Spring Weather in Sweden!

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  2. as an addendum - there wa snow on the ground this morning. winter isn't giving up without a fight.

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  3. And on March 20th daylight equals dark light :)
    I'm looking forward to it! Let's hope at least the Summer will be better than previous.

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  4. Here in Kalmar it's been hot (for the season. 5-8 degrees and very sunny for weeks:D I love it! But this isn't the only warm winter lately, there's been a lot pretty warm winters (not liek this one,t hough) and there's been very few cold winters for the last 10-15 years and my grand parents always say the winters were much snowier and colder when they were younger so I think it is getting hotter and hotter. Call me uncool if you want but I definitely think it's a reality

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  5. @smek this - WOOOOO!!!!

    @johan - Yeah this winter has been pretty ridiculous.

    I actually remember hearing over Christmas on Sveriges Radio the whole idea of a white christmas always being remembered by the older generations, but when you look at the data most christmases are not white. it seems we just romanticize the winters.

    and you're free to your opinion. hell I think that all the stuff going into the atmosphere can't be all that good. I just don't buy into the whole sky is falling nonsense that Al Gore spews out. I guess I lean more towards the cyclical with a bit of humans thrown in.

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