Sweden set for mildest winter in 250 years
While Sweden’s meteorologists are claiming that spring has arrived early across the country, they have yet to decide whether winter actually began. And as February draws to a close it looks like winter 2007-2008 will be Sweden’s mildest on record.
The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) has two rules of thumb it has devised over the years to determine the arrival of winter and spring. For winter it is when the average temperature falls below freezing for five consecutive days.
As yet that has not happened in southern Sweden. In fact January 2008 was the mildest on record for the country and at present temperatures through February have been 4 to 7 degrees above normal. The existing temperature record for the three month period December to February is 1.9C, set in 1972-1973. Current data for the 2007-2008 winter season suggests the final average will be near 2 or 2.2C, making it the mildest since records began in 1756.
Sweden’s rule of thumb for the arrival of spring requires average temperatures to have risen above freezing for seven consecutive days. Since that has now been met by much of the country, spring has well and truly arrived.
Meteorologists are putting the mild weather down to a general change in climate with the last few years having been milder than normal. Sweden is not alone, with southern Finland also experiencing a mild winter.
