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Sweden just had its coldest night this winter

The Local Sweden
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Sweden just had its coldest night this winter
A picture taken in Sundsvall, some 900 kilometres south of Nikkaluokta, on Friday. Photo: Mats Andersson/TT

Sweden set a new seasonal cold record over the weekend, but it's a far cry from the all-time record.

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The mercury dropped to a shivering -39.5C overnight in Nikkaluokta in the far north of Sweden between Saturday and Sunday – the coldest temperature yet this winter.

On Monday morning it was slightly warmer – but still cold – in Sweden, with temperatures across the entire country ranging from -32.9C in northern town Pajala to 0.1C at Hoburg on the Baltic Sea island of Gotland.

It is not the first time Nikkaluokta, close to Kiruna, sets cold records. The small settlement and mountain tourism station is nestled between two valleys at the foot of Sweden's highest mountain Kebnekaise.

If you think -39.5C sounds cold, try -52.6C which is the coldest temperature ever officially recorded in Sweden, in Vuoggatjålme in the Lapland mountains on February 2nd 1966. Now, that's cold.

The winter chill is expected to keep a cold grasp on Sweden for another couple of days, with possible snowfall in eastern parts of the central Svealand region and the Norrland coast late on Tuesday.

The area around Sundsvall in central Sweden was hit unusually hard by a snow storm last week, with school closures and a number of traffic accidents in the region despite buses and several trains being cancelled.

A snow depth of 165 centimetres was recorded in Gåltjärn just north of Sundsvall on Monday morning.

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