Swedish summer: Sizzling heat Posted by jennie on Jul 12, 2010 in Culture
If you think Sweden is a rather cold place, you better think again! This summer is officially the hottest for years, and yesterday, the highest temperature since 1994 (all time high is 38 degrees, from 1947) was measured in Skåne, in the south of Sweden. The people of Målilla had to cope with a sizzling 35 degrees and similar temperatures were measured all over the country.
In addition, in a number of places in Skåne, Gotland and around Stockholm, temperatures stayed above 20 degrees throughout the whole night, which officially makes it a so-called tropical night. (Read: A night when it’s fricking impossible to sleep…)
Tropical nights! 35 degrees! I can’t get my head around this. Okay, I have had great and hot summers in Sweden before, but I can’t recall any other heat wave hanging around for this long. A week, tops. But hey, this wave seem to like it up there and I am crossing my fingers and praying to any weather god available that it will stick for another few weeks, since I am stuck in a sizzling office probably breaking some all time highest temperature ever measured in an office-record… As Marcus explained here, almost all of Sweden is off on their loooong holiday now, which 1. Makes it impossible to work, because all emails you send are instantly replied by an “Autoreply; Out off the office” . And 2: Makes it almost unbearable to even have quick glance at Facebook, since everyone “is swimming, BBQ-ing, drinking wine, enjoying the sunshine, hanging on the beach….”.
So. Let’s talk about the weather for a bit! What’s it like where you are? Any heat wave hanging around your place? Colds naps? Thunderstorms?
Some weather vocab for potential conversations with Swedes:
Weather = Väder
Heat wave = Värmebölja
Tropical night = Tropisk natt
Breeze = Bris
Sweaty = Svettig
Air Condition = Luftkonditionering
Sunshine = Solsken
Thunder = Åska
Forecast: Prognos
Foto: Alex Brandell/Sweden.se
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Comments:
Lead:
I love Sweden in Summer. Many visitors that visit LA from Sweden tell me the weather is almost the same in Summer.
Karen:
I hope this weather stays the same through August because I will be in Sweden for 18 days during that month! I live in the USA, in Pennsylvania, and when I talk to my Swedish friend, we are amazed at how similar our weather has been, both the very cold winter with alot of snow to this hot wave of the last few weeks. I guess the main difference with summer is that we regularly get hot temperatures like you are having now. It’s normal for us… and yes, we have have the thunderstorms also.
Antropologa:
What’s funny is I just moved TO Sweden FROM a real tropical island. So this weather is not a surprise for me, but doing it without A/C is. Enjoyable nonetheless. We’re going to the lake a lot!
John Cupak:
I had to pause for a minute before I realized the temperatures were reported in C, not F. It’s been HOT here in New England, too! Almost 100F
Erik from Nor Cal:
35 C… why that’s about what we have every day during the summer here in the Central Valley of Northern California, you just get used to it. I guess it’s like your cold winters… -20C sounds absolutely grim from my point of view. We get snow maybe once every 10 years or so and only occassionally do we get frost during the winter. Would love to come to Sweden to experience both the summer and winter
Cheers
Letícia:
It’s funny that only a few days ago I realized that summer in Sweden can be so hot, by reading Mons Kallentoft’s Sommardöden. 🙂 In the very first chapter it mentions a record heat of 38°. Knowing that it is a fiction book, I went online to check if such a thing was possible, and turns out that it is!
I live in a northeastern city in Brazil and it’s never really cold here. In the winter it rains a lot (pretty much every single day), but the temperatures are never lower than 18°C – at night! Thankfully our summer is not that hot, too. The average temperature here is about 30°C. Last summer we had a record heat of 34°C and it felt so awful that it makes even harder for me to believe that you can have that kind of temperature in Sweden!
By the way, I still have a long way to go with the book since I just started, but I’m really enjoying it! I wish my Swedish was better so that I could read faster, but on the other hand that’s the point, I’m improving my Swedish while reading this brilliant story. 🙂 Thank you again so much for it, I’ll definitely tell you more about it as soon as I’m finished.
jennie:
I know, 35 degrees might not sound that impressive to some of you guys, but I can tell you, it sure is! And it is degrees Celcius, yes 🙂
Karen: Where in Sweden are you going? Crossing my fingers for you – and me aswell!!
Leticia: Glad you are enjoyingit and funny that you are reading the book as the sam kind are heatwave are happeing up there… let’s hope ther murders aren’t, though! 🙂
firepits:
I love the scenic beauty of Sweden. Just read this post and found that I need to learn more of Swedish vocab.