Arctic Sweden’s mild weather means strawberries still growing
Winter is late, even in the Swedish Arctic.
Kiruna, a city in Sweden’s Far North, usually meets winter on the 10th of October, and the northern coastal city of Umeå usually has winter weather by the 4th of November.
But instead of winter, fresh wild strawberries are still growing.
Alexandra Ohlsson at the Swedish Meteorological Institute (SMHI) told Swedish news agency TT that winter will probably be at least another week away.
As well as ripening strawberries, the mild temperatures in the northern part of Sweden are also good for pests like mosquitoes and ticks.
Winter is officially defined as an average temperature of below zero for five days in a row. It usually reaches Stockholm by the 1st of December, Gothenburg by the 29th, and Malmö by the 7th of January.
Originally posted November 6, 2011