Swedish Weather Source: Swedish Institute

Sweden's climate is a function of the country's location in the border zone between Arctic and warmer air masses as well as its proximity to the Atlantic, with its warm Gulf Stream.

Because of the tilt in the earth's axis and its rotation around the sun, the polar regions experience an extreme contrast between long summer days and equally long winter nights. In the summer, sunlight lasts around the clock in the portion of Sweden located north of the Arctic Circle, but even as far south as Stockholm (59 N) the June nights have only a few hours of semi-darkness.

Considering its geographic location Scandinavia enjoys a very favorable climate. Atlantic low pressure areas often blow in warmth and precipitation from the south-west. The weather is changeable; a few hours of rain are often followed by sunlight and wind the next day and then new rainfall. Given this type of weather, the temperature differences between night and day, summer and winter, are not so great especially in western Sweden. Another type of weather, however, creates a more contrasting climate: high pressure zones to the east, which create stable, dry, sunny weather. This high pressure leads to hot spells in summer and cold ones in winter. The battle between the more temperate Atlantic weather and the more extreme continental weather is an important reality to farmers and vacationers. The difference between the weather in southern and northern Sweden is slight in the summer, when Norrland warms up because of its very long days.

Fall and winter arrive early in the northern interior, while the southern coastal areas enjoy long, mild fall weather. Norrland has colder and longer winters than southern Sweden, where there is often rain interspersed with snowfall.

For more information...

- Sweden's Weather Forecast

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