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Hot or cold? Sweden's early summer weather in stats

The Local Sweden
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Hot or cold? Sweden's early summer weather in stats
This is what Malmö looked like in May last year. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

Was this May as hot as last year's record start to the summer? The monthly weather stats are in.

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Last year, as you may recall, Sweden experienced the hottest May on record, with the national weather agency SMHI describing it as something that happens "three times every million years".

Stockholm, for example, had a 16.1C average temperature – far higher than the normal 10.5C.

It was followed by drought, farmers sending animals to emergency slaughter, and a record spate of wildfires across the country – so it will come as a relief that this year, things were more or less back to normal.

"Last year's May was really extreme. This year we haven't had as many warm days, but we did get some summer warmth in the middle of the month," SMHI's Alexandra Ohlsson told newswire TT this week.

Gothenburg won the temperature league last year, with 31.1C – the highest temperature in the month of May since 1911. This year, according to preliminary stats, it looks like Kvarn in the Östergötland region will get the top spot with a mere 27.3C.

The coldest temperature this year was recorded at the weather station in Tarfala, in the northern Kiruna municipality, with a shivering -13.4C. But although the mercury moved from one extreme to the other, on average, there were no surprises, with normal temperatures or slightly below normal.

It was also a very rainy May – which is good news for Swedish water reserves, which experts earlier this year warned were significantly below normal levels, with hosepipe bans in several areas.

Gäddede in northern Jämtland had the wettest month of May since records began in 1906.

Piteå on the northern coast, where records began in 1860 and which had a rainfall of 44.2 millimetres on May 12th, may also top its precipitation record if enough rain falls today.

What about snow, you ask? There was still some snow cover left in northern Sweden, particularly in the western mountain regions. Katterjåkk had the deepest snow depth: 1.44 metres on May 6th.

Vocabulary

last year – förra året or i fjol

this year – i år

snow – snö

rain – regn

drought – torka

We're aiming to help our readers improve their Swedish by translating vocabulary from some of our news stories. Did you find it useful? Do you have any suggestions? Let us know.

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