No sun in Sweden

Swedish weather tracking company SMHI has released the measured hours of sunlight during December for different parts of Sweden.

What this means is the actual time you can see the sun and it’s not obstructed by clouds and a heavy overcast. One place called Växjö had only 20 minutes of sun during the whole of December! That is 0,045% of that entire month!

LuleÃ¥ had one hour of sun, but it’s so far north so their median value is only five hours anyway. Some of the parts that had the most sun had about 60 hours of sun. Not too shabby in comparison. 🙂

No wonder Sweden has such a high suicide rate…

A little addition: mythology connection

I guess this explains Fimbulwinter a little more… Ragnarök is upon us!

8 Comments

  • Patrick says:

    Actually, it's a myth that Sweden has a higher suicide rate than comparable countries. A few years ago I looked it up and in 1999 there was a suicide rate of 19.7 and 8.0 per 100000 (male and female respectively) in Sweden. Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Luxemburg and Switzerland had higher rates.

    The myth is probably based on the fact that Sweden has had a very close watch on its citizens through the folkbokföring for several hundred years and thus had actual data compiled when other countries had none.

  • And I though it was just me oversizing the loss of sunlight in true spirit of always complaining about the weather … 😮

  • Steven Clark says:

    My mother's side of our family are named Tronerud (Norwegian's). Its no wonder my grandfather Kittle, on arriving in Australia at 19, jumped ship and changed his name 🙂

    If we have a lot of anything in Australia its sunshine…

  • Ceriak says:

    Hungary has the honorific 6th place on the list (following Lithuania, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan and Slovenia). Even though we have sun.

    Maybe we need some political weather change.

  • The really good thing with cloudy winters, is that everyone in Scandinavia more or less celebrate the sunlight all summer, and actually DO go to the beach, DO have bbq's in the parks, DO go hiking, DO get to use their birthday suits when sunbathing / swimming 😉

    A friend of mine complained that californians never actually went anywere and enjoyed the whether, got to together for some bbq in the weekend, etc.

    But, maybe he's wrong, and it's got nothing to do with the changing of the seasons.

    Personally I am looking forward to maidens in summer frocks 🙂

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Patrick,

    I agree that it's partly dependent on the close watch Sweden has had on their citizen. The suicide rate in a number of other countries than Sweden is indeed higher.

    But, and I have nothing to back this up with, I think that Sweden used to have a comparatively high suicide rate maybe 15-20 years ago, and this has stuck in people's mind (mine included).

    Anders,

    Nope, at least he lack of sun is verified. 🙂

    Ceriak,

    Yes, it seems that politics should cause this much more than poor weather. However, in some countries with really poor political climate, I guess it's hard to get proper figures on suicide rates as well (not sure at what level Hungary really is).

    Morgan,

    Yes! Spring! Maidens! 🙂

  • Sam Morin says:

    I don't care how overprotective the government is, I'm moving there!!! This place is perfect for me and a few people I know. I have PMLE which means I can't go in the sun so I might finally be able to go outside during the day. Sort of. lol

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Sam,

    Ha ha! You're welcome! 🙂

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