Category: Weather

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Earthstorm

I am fascinated by the weather and particularly extreme weather. I have watched this series of four episodes from 2022 on Netflix and recommend it to others. Our climate is changing, no matter where we live. In most places, weather is becoming more extreme than it used to be. Those that get a lot of rain may be getting a lot more. Those in dry areas may be experiencing longer droughts. Everywhere the air is on average warmer and the oceans are becoming warmer as well. These changes affect plants, animals, humans and our daily weather.

Taken on 2015.08.11 on the road between Straumen and Vangshylla in Inderøy, Norway. One can see rain showers in the distance but it was the storm front that was unusually clear as it moved in over Inderøy.

We have to accept the weather we get and there is little we can do to change what we get on a day-to-day basis. However we have to build infrastructure and housing that can withstand more extreme weather happenings. In Norway, these extreme events bring floods, rock slides and avalanches. Some areas are also experiencing drought that is bad enough to affect crops. We can have bad storms that rip roofs off buildings and floods that damage housing areas. So these increases in extreme weather affect us here. Thankfully, our house sits on rock and so far as withstood the weather that has been thrown at it.

This documentary series is very obviously American, and focuses primarily on what happens in the United States of America. The one exception is the episode about volcanoes, as there have not been any recent volcanic eruptions in the USA. One thing I did like about the series was how they interviewed people who had experienced the bad events but had survived. I felt that one of the purposes of the series was to show how these events affect people and the extent of the damage that was done.

Episode 1 – Tornado

We follow storm chasers as they try to document various tornadoes. There is an explanation of how tornadoes are formed and where in the USA they are primarily found. There are hundreds of tornadoes during the tornado season, but very few last very long, or are very large. However we did see the damage with one very large tornado that destroyed a large area housing area.

Included in this episode is some advice for those who live in tornado areas. Usually there will come general warnings, but where a tornado will hit can be difficult to predict. The winds in a tornado are very strong and one needs to protect oneself from flying debris and being trapped in a collapsed building. Everyone needs a “safe zone” where they can seek refuge if a tornado is headed their way.

Episode 2 – Volcano

This episode visited four locations, none of which were in the USA. They explained the different levels of explosivity and we started with the lowest one and ended with the most explosive one. Locations include Iceland, the Canary Islands, Nicaragua and Guatemala. The volcano they looked at in Iceland was a tourist attraction and at the time of recording did not affect human habitations, however in January 2024 a new eruption in a nearby area affected the town of Grindvik and there was another eruption on the 16th of March.

The volcanic eruption in the Canary Islands destroyed a lot of housing, though I don’t think there was any life lost. Evacuation was successful, but many lost everything to the lava flows. I remember seeing pictures of this volcanic eruption at the time it happened and feeling very sorry for those affected.

The volcanoes in Nicaragua and Guatemala affected a lot of people. Volcanic soil is very good for agriculture and in many countries people live very close to the volcanoes. This is fine until the volcano erupts and ruins everything in the path of the lava flows. These volcanoes have the highest explosivity, which means that you cannot outrun the ash flows and they cause the most deaths.

Episode 3 – Earthquake

This episode was primarily about Los Angeles in California and various places in Japan. There are many other places in the world that experience earthquakes, often with very fatal consequences. Earthquakes are very difficult to predict. Though where they will occur is known, it is difficult to know when. The recent volcanic eruptions in Iceland have been preceded by small earthquakes, so the occurrence of earthquakes can help predict volcanic eruptions.

One consequence of earthquakes is the production of tsunamis, large waves that can travel long distances over the ocean. Often it is the tsunami which is the killer, rather than the earthquake itself. When one looks at the pictures of the tsunami waves, one sees the destructive power of water.

Japan has done a lot to improve building standards, so that buildings do not collapse during an earthquake. I grew up in an area that had earthquakes every now and then, though none that I experienced every did more than shake the building and I never experienced any damage.

Episode 4 – Hurricane

This episode was about Hurricane Ida in 2021 which created a lot of damage in Louisiana in the USA. The storm continued for several days as it headed north creating a trail of damage. We see two storm chasers and their experiences during the storm and their efforts to document what actually happens during a hurricane. We also saw a lot of the damage that was done during the storm.

Hurricanes are usually predicted up to several days in advance so that people can either evacuate or find safe places to sit out the storm. However the storms are getting stronger and more often. More places are being damaged and lives are often lost.

My conclusion

Watching documentaries like this make me think about the safety of where I live. In the past we have experienced hurricanes here and our house has survived without any major damage. We recently watched a film about the bad flooding in England in 1953 where most people did not realize that there was bad weather out in the North Sea. Thankfully, weather forecasting has improved a lot in the last decade, so that when a major storm is expected, one can at least be prepared for the storm. In the summer of 2023, “Hans” created a lot of damage in southern Norway, flooding areas that weren’t used to being flooded. In January 2024, a storm in our area took the roof off a building on a farm not that far from us.

It is important that people have housing that tolerates the new types of weather we are going to get. We have to be prepared to be without electricity for up to several days. We have to keep a supply of food in the house so that one doesn’t have to go to a food store every day.

We all have to be prepared for extreme weather events. Where we live will determine what type of extremes we will experience. It is important to know the dangers and how to protect oneself during these types of events.

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Spring 2023 is around the corner

Today I went for my first walk in the woods in 2023. I’ve been wanting to do it for quite a while, but both in February and March we have had quite a bit of snow which required removal from our long driveway. So, there was no energy left for pleasant walks in the woods.

The snow is not gone, but today is the vernal/spring equinox, (at 22:24 our time), so the feeling is that spring is just around the corner. The weather today has been a mixture of sunshine, rain and sleet, with plus degrees. But underfoot there is still snow or mud. I didn’t see any flowers yet. Here the first wild ones are usually seen at the beginning of April, so there is still two weeks before that sign of spring should appear.

For safety sake, I often carry a walking stick with me. It helps give me better balance both when it is slippery or I’m on slopes. I’ve accepted that I’m not so young any more.

Animal Tracks

With snow on the ground, it is easy to see where wild animals walk. We are used to seeing deer, squirrels and birds in our yard, usually near the bird feeder which has sunflower seeds. But once I got away from our own property, it was interesting to see other tracks in the snow.

These are definitely the tracks of a human who uses a walking stick in her right hand.
These tracks are deer tracks, the most common tracks I see near us, often across our lawn and through the flower beds.
These tracks are much larger than the deer tracks and belong to a moose. Moose are common in the woods in Inderøy, but I seldom see them on our lot.
I’m not positive, but I think these are the tracks of a wolverine. They were seen in the woods, away from the cabins. Wolverines are often nocturnal animals.

The Trail

In the summer months, this is a road that can be driven on by car, but it is not cleared in the winter. Most of the tracks were animal tracks, but some were human bootprints. The snow was not so deep that there was any problem walking.
In some places there were even few tracks from before.
As I went away from the road and into the woods, there was even less snow. It was almost muddy.
This section of the trail is often a small stream. The ground was soft and it was thawing, but there were no problems with running water or large pools, yet.
The turn-around point of my walk, “Bjønnbrottet” or Bear Cliff as I call it in English. Inside the lean-to there is a box with a book in it, so that visitors can write the date and their name. I like to count how many times I write my name in the book. Today was the first time for 2023. There were a few names before mine, but not many yet in 2023.
Here is the book that is used for walkers to register their visit, if they wish. Over the years, the book itself has been decorated as well.
The view from the lean-to, looking south to the island of Ytterøy.

Changes

When I haven’t been to a place for a while, it is always interesting to see if there are changes. In the woods, winter storms can blow down trees. Near the cabins, humans can also make changes.

This tree looks like it just rotted and fell over. This has happened during the winter as the trail used to go on both sides of the tree.
Suddenly I came to an open area which used to be dark from the trees. The cabin up the slope on the right has probably wanted a better view.
The view from the open area where the trail goes. People in the cabin up on the hill would probably see over the trees. The view is looking south-west out over Trondheimsfjord. When I got farther along on my walk, the wind was blowing up from the fjord in that direction.

This is a walk I usually take many times in a year, and I will certainly be doing it many more times in 2023. It takes about an hour and has several uphill sections so that I get good exercise. I was lucky with the weather when I was out today. Shortly after I came indoors, it poured with rain.

How would you define spring where you live? I think of spring as the first wildflowers blooming, the snow disappearing, the farmers ploughing fields, the temperature being above zero degrees and more hours of daylight. So spring is still around the corner here, but I don’t think it will be long. We have plus degrees in the daytime, many more hours of daylight than we had in January and the snow is slowly disappearing.

I hope you are also starting to get out for walks in nature. It is said that being near trees is very good for our mental health. Have a good week and a good spring.

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The Climate Book – An Overview

Created by Greta Thunberg and published by Allen Lane /Penguin Books in November 2022.

Greta Thunberg was born in 2003 in Sweden. In 2018 she started a school strike for the climate outside the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm. Since then she has traveled to many places in the world and spoken at many gatherings. She is a person that cares about the planet Earth.

The book is divided into five parts. Greta Thunberg writes an introduction to each part and some comments in between. All her articles are written on blue paper which is to symbolize the blue planet that we live on. In addition there are many experts in various fields to write articles about the science involved in this problem. There is a lot of information in this book which has 446 pages. The main purpose, in my opinion, is to get the reader to think about their own lifestyle, to acquire some knowledge of the problems and perhaps make changes in their own life.

In this first blog I am going to give an overview of what the book covers. In later blogs I will be going into some of the issues that are taken up in this book.

I recommend reading this book, though it can be a bit heavy reading. I am reading it in very small doses and so it is taking several months to get through it. Perhaps it is best this way as then I have time to reflect on the different topics as they are taken up.

Part One How Climate Works

The science of how our climate works is explained in this part. The fact that our climate is changing, and that our weather is getting more extreme, is not debatable. But do you understand how it all fits together? This part of the book is to help the reader get a basic understanding of the science behind it all.

Greta Thunberg has written three articles for this part:

  • To solve this problem, we need to understand it
  • The science is as solid as it gets
  • This is the biggest story in the world

In addition there are six articles:

  • The Deep History of Carbon Dioxide by Peter Brannen
  • Our Evolutionary Impact by Beth Shapiro
  • Civilization and Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
  • The Discovery of Climate Change by Michael Oppenheimer
  • Why Didn’t They Act? by Naomi Oreskes
  • Tipping Points and Feedback Loops by Johan Rockström

Part Two How our Planet is Changing

The science behind the changing climate has been known for a long time. I live in a place where most people think that it is fine if the weather was a bit warmer. But warming is not the problem everywhere. More extreme weather which causes storms and floods, rising sea levels and air pollution are all part of the problem. I found these articles interesting as they explain problems that other parts of the world are experiencing.

Greta Thunberg has written three articles for this part:

  • The weather seems to be on steroids
  • The snowball has been set in motion
  • It is much closer to home than we think

There are 21 articles in this part, most of them are quite short, about two pages, though some are longer. These are experts in their fields giving information on what is actually happening.

  • Heat, by Katharine Hayhoe
  • Methane and Other Gases by Zeke Hausfather
  • Air Pollution and Aerosols by Bjørn H. Samset
  • Clouds by Paulo Coppi
  • Arctic Warming and the Jet Stream by Jennifer Francis
  • Dangerous Weather by Friederike Otto
  • Drought and Floods by Kare Marvel
  • Ice Sheets, Shelves and Glaciers by Ricarda Winkelmann
  • Warming Oceans and Rising Seas by Stefan Rahmstorf
  • Acidification and Marine Ecosystems by Hans-Otto Pörtner
  • Microplastics by Karin Kvale
  • Fresh Water by Peter H. Gleick
  • Wildfires by Joëlle Gergis
  • The Amazon by Carlos Nobre, Julia Arieira and Nathália Nascimento
  • Boreal and Temperate Forests by Beverly Law
  • Terrestrial Biodiversity by Andy Purvis and Adriana De Palma
  • Insects by Dave Goulson
  • Nature’s Calendar by Keith W. LArson
  • Soil by Jennifer L. Soong
  • Permafrost by Ôrjan Gustafsson
  • What Happens at 1.5, 2 and 4 degrees C of Warming? by Tamsin Edwards

Part Three How It Affects Us

When the climate changes, it can affect our water and food supplies. It can affect our health. We are not all equally affected but usually the poor are hit hardest. This part helped me better understand how others are being affected, those who live in other parts of the world.

The three articles by Greta Thunberg are:

  • The world has a fever
  • We are not all in the same boat
  • Enormous challenges are waiting

In addition there are 17 articles:

  • Health and Climate by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
  • Heat and Illness by Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera
  • Air Pollution by Drew Shindell
  • Vector-borne Diseases by Felipe J. Colón-González
  • Antibiotic Resistance by John Brownstein, Derek MacFadden, Sarah McGough and Maruicio Sentilland
  • Food and Nutrition by Samuel S. Myers
  • Life at 1.1 degrees C
  • Environmental Racism by Jacqueline Patterson
  • Climate Refugees by Abrahm Lustfarten
  • Sea-level Rise and Small Islands by Michael Taylor
  • Rain in the Sahel by Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim
  • Winter in Sápmi by Elin Anna Labba
  • Fighting for the Forest by Sonia Guajajara
  • Warming and Inequality by Solomon Hsiang
  • Water Shortages by Taikan Oki
  • Climate Conflicts by Marshall Burke
  • The True Cost of Climate Change by Eugene Linden

Part Four What We’ve Done About It

It has been quite depressing reading about what has actually been done, as it is so little. Emissions are increasing. Governments and businesses are avoiding the changes that are necessary. Some of these articles are about some of the fancy ideas that are being tried, but aren’t necessarily working.

The five articles by Greta Thunberg are:

  • How can we undo our failures if we are unable to admit that we have failed?
  • We are not moving in the right direction
  • A whole new way of thinking
  • They keep saying one thing while doing another
  • This is where we draw the line

In addition there are 22 articles:

  • The New Denialism by Kevin Anderson
  • The Truth about Government Climate Targets by Alexandra Urisman Otto
  • The Persistence of Fossil Fuels by Bill McKibben
  • The Rise of Renewables by Glen Peters
  • How Can Forests Help Us? by Karl-Heinz Erb and Simone Gingrich
  • What about Geoengineering? by Niclas Hällström, Jennie C. Stephens and Isak Stoddard
  • Drawdown Technologies by Rob Jackson
  • Our Imprint on the Land by Alexander Popp
  • The Calorie Question by Michael Clark
  • Designing New Food Systems by Sonja Vermeulen
  • Mapping Emission in an Industrial World by John Barrett and Alice Garvey
  • The Technical Hitch by Ketan Joshi
  • The Challenge of Transport by Alice Larkin
  • Is the Future Electric? by Jillian Anable and Christian Brand
  • The Cost of Consumerism by Annie Lowrey
  • How (Not) to Buy by Mike Berners-Lee
  • Waste around the World by Silpa Kaza
  • The Myth of Recycling by Nina Schrank
  • Emissions and Growth by Nicholas Stern
  • Equity by Sunita Narain
  • Degrowth by Jason Hickel
  • The Perception Gap by Amitav Ghosh

Part Five What We Must Do Now

If we are to prevent the earth becoming severely affected, we have to do an awful lot more than is being done. There are still too many people in places of power who are not doing what it takes to prevent global warming on a significant scale.

There are four articles by Greta Thunberg:

  • The most effective way to get out of this mess is to educate ourselves
  • We now have to do the seemingly impossible
  • Honesty, solidarity, integrity and climate justice
  • Hope is something you have to earn

In addition there are 17 articles:

  • Individual Action, Social Transformation by Stuart Capstick and Lorraine Whitmarsh
  • Towards 1.5 Degrees C Lifestyles by Kate Raworth
  • Overcoming Climate Apathy by Per Espen Stoknes
  • Changing Our Diets by Godon Eshel
  • Remembering the Ocean by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
  • Rewilding by George Monbiot and Rebecca Wrigley
  • Practical Utopias by Margaret Atwood
  • People Power by Erica Chenoweth
  • Changing the Media Narrative by George Monbiot
  • Resisting the New Denialism by Michael E. Mann
  • A Genuine Emergency Response by Seth Klein
  • Lessons from the Pandemic by David Wallace-Wells
  • A Just Transition by Naomi Klein
  • What Does Equity Mean to You by Nicki Becker, Disha A. Ravi, Hilda Flavia Nakabuye, Laura Verónica Muñoz, Ina Maria Shikongo, Ayisha Siddiqa and Mitzi Jonelle Tan
  • Women and the Climate Crisis by Wanjora Mathai
  • Decarbonization Requires Redistribution by Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty
  • Climate Reparations by Olúféemi O. Tálwò
  • Mending Our Relationship with the Earth by Robin Wall Kimmerer

I have a paper copy of the book which uses 446 pages to share these articles, some pictures and graphs and an index. There is a web site for looking up where the references come from.

At the moment I am reading Part Four and will share my reactions and more detailed comments about each part of the book in future blogs. I am enjoying the book and it is making me think about the conditions in the world. We are all very quick to criticize what others do, but I want to work out what I can do in my life. I cannot change other people, but I can change the way I live and what I do.

I hope you will also read this book and work out ways that you too can be part of the solution and not just part of the problem.

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February Walk – Ice

As the walks that I take at this time of year tend to follow the same few trails or roads, I look for different themes for taking my pictures as I walk. Today I noticed ice in different types of locations.

January 2022 was the month of storms in Norway, though we didn’t feel all of them where we live. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute summed up the month of January with very high levels of bad weather warnings (see the article in Norwegian here), about twice as many as a year ago. There was a storm somewhere in Norway on 26 of the 31 days in January, with 82 yellow warnings, 12 orange warnings (more serious) and 2 red, extreme warnings. Why were there so many storms in January in Norway? There was a high pressure area sitting over Great Britain, so they got the sunshine. The storms coming in off the Atlantic Ocean went around Great Britain and came to Norway.

I usually think of January as the month that it warms up a bit and the snow disappears. This year we got that, but we also got several storms that brought more snow, or heavy rain. The last week of January saw more snow. February tends to be, in my opinion, more stable weather, meaning that there are fewer storms and more sunnier weather, though it can be quite cold and very often a lot of ice.

Today the temperature was about +2 degrees Celsius and no wind when I was out walking. The sun shone intermittently, but the day felt bright. But the last few days has given us changeable weather, sometimes snow, sometimes rain, but always the temperature has been about zero degrees, so that the rain does not get rid of much of the snow. That means that we have had perfect conditions for creating ice, especially where one drives or where one walks.

Running water creates ice and this stream was no exception. This is the same stream that a few weeks ago was causing flooding on the field at the top. The stream is fed under the cultivated field through a large pipe. Here the stream tumbles down a ravine, causing ice to form along its path.
In the woods, running water can also cause icicles to form. Here was a long series of icicles.
As I got closer to the icicles, I noticed the rock formations as well. Here there were several layers of rock, with large spaces between them. Above there are farm fields. Some of the water seems to be flowing in the stream I had found a week ago, but most of the water just seemed to drip over the edge of the rocks. Note that there is a lot of moss on the rocks indicating that these rocks are wet all year long.
The sun came out as I was writing my name in the tour book at the lean-to. I checked the map on my telephone and it told me that I was about 80 meters above sea level. I make sure I don’t go near the edge at this time of the year. I do not want to slide down a cliff face.
A week ago, I had seen a large tree stump at the water’s edge at the beach. Was it still there, I wondered? So I walked down to the beach and sure enough, it was stranded near the high water level on the beach. Today the tide was much lower. We can have up to four meters difference between high tide and low tide.
Back to ice and the conditions of the roads. This is a private gravel road that leads to five homes and many cabins. Icy! I was glad that I was wearing cleats under my shoes. I was also very careful where I walked. At the lowest point of this section of road, the stream goes under the road through a large pipe.
Even the municipal road that leads to the quay at Vangshylla was very, very icy, though a bit of sand had been put down to allow cars better traction on the ice. Walking along the edge of the road, it was very icy. I was glad to be walking uphill, not downhill.
As I walked up the road, I again saw icicles forming where water drains off the cliff and freezes as it falls.
The yellow fence at the top of the cliff shows our property. Here, too, ice forms as water is draining away and then freezing.

As it was several days since I had been out for a walk, I dawdled a bit, watching where I was walking and was out for about an hour and a half. It was good to get fresh air and let my eyes focus on things far away, and not just look at a computer screen or my knitting.

I hope you too have had a good walk this weekend.

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The Weather Machine: A Journey Inside the Forecast by Andrew Blum

Particularly in the winter months, I am one of those people who are constantly checking the weather forecast. Is it going to snow or rain? How cold will it be? Can I get out for a walk when there is no precipitation? How much clothes do I need to wear? I consult my weather app on my phone daily, if not several times a day. I’ve also noted that the weather forecasts are much more detailed (it will rain for the next 90 minutes and then clear up) and more accurate (it actually does rain for 90 minutes then stop).

I found this book by Andrew Blum very interesting as he goes into the history of weather forecasting and how it has come to the point it is now, with very reliable forecasts for the next 24 hours. If you find this topic interesting, I recommend this book. It is relatively short (about 130 pages of text) and well written. The language is simple so that anyone can understand what he is writing about and he has stories of people which make it easier to connect to the history he is telling. If you don’t like spoilers, you can hop over the rest of this blog. If you want to learn more about the book and its contents, continue reading, as I will summarize the main points of the book. Many of the expressions that I use in my own text are taken from Blum’s book.

Much of the book is about the history of how weather forecasting developed and as a resident of Norway, I found it interesting how much Norway was part of this history. The Prologue gives his reasons for investigating this topic, then the book is divided into four parts:

  • Part I: Calculation – two chapters
  • Part II: Observation – four chapters
  • Part III: Simulation – four chapters
  • Part IV: Preservation – one chapter

Part I: Calculation

The book starts off with a visit to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in Oslo in June 2015. Because Norwegians are at the mercy of the cold and the wind, and is a relatively rich country, forecasting the weather and understanding the mechanics of the atmosphere has had a long tradition in Norway.

With the invention of the telegraph in 1844, communication between various points in a country became much easier and current weather conditions could be compared with places far away. People’s understanding of weather began to develop and it wasn’t just what people were experiencing right then. A map could be made of what the weather looked like. Seeing a map of what was happening allowed people to start thinking about probable changes and therefore how the weather might be in the future.

So the collection of weather observations became part of the weather service. The collection and sharing of this information was the next development. In 1873, the first congress of what later became the International Meteorological Organization took place in Vienna with representatives from twenty governments. Standards, protocols and rules were developed.

By 1895, just the collection of weather observations was not enough, it had to be put into a new system of understanding how the weather worked. Vilhelm Bjerknes, a Norwegian, took this understanding one step farther by suggesting that the weather could be calculated using physics and mathematics, making meteorology a modern science: verifiable, repeatable and mathematical. Bjerknes’ equations weren’t easy to solve, but it was a start towards understanding the connection between the atmosphere and the weather.

This led to the idea of a weather factory where calculations were made, based on weather observations, that could lead to a forecast of what the weather would be like in the future.

Part II: Observation

The first chapter in this part of the book is about how weather observations are made. Some weather stations are manned as there are some observations that only a human can do. Some observations are made on land, some on the sea, some on aircraft and some from satellites. The author decides to visit a manned weather station and visits the island of Utsira off the west coast of Norway, between Bergen and Stavanger. This has been a weather station since the 1860s. Things that Hans Van Kampen must record, several times a day, include type of precipitation, sky height, visibility and cloud type.

The second chapter in this part is how the view of the weather changed, driven by technological developments and military needs, primarily in World War II. Among other developments was the sending up of rockets with cameras mounted on them, taking pictures of the earth that they were leaving. Now came the idea of having instruments up in the atmosphere, above the clouds, to get a larger view of the weather systems. Such was the start of weather satellites that are now used as one type of weather observations. The World Weather Watch was born and was to be used for peaceful purposes only, as the atmosphere is borderless.

The third chapter in this part describes the two types of weather satellites, geostationary orbiters (which appear motionless as they follow the earth’s rotation) and polar orbiters (which fly lower and circle the planet from north to south and from south to north). Most of these satellites are owned by governments. In Europe, EUMETSAT, the European meteorological satellite agency is an independent organization funded and overseen by the meteorological services of thirty nations.

The fourth chapter in this part gives more information about satellites, how they are made and what they do, including a visit to Vandenberg, in California, to see the launch of a satellite.

Part III: Simulation

In the first chapter in this part, the author visits the Mesa Lab, outside Boulder, Colorado, where we are given information about how the weather models work, how the observations are used and turned into a forecast of what most likely will happen in the future. Supercomputers are now used to take the observations and make calculations, and provide reliable forecasts of what will happen in the near future. These weather models are constantly being tweaked to improve them.

In the second chapter of this part, the author travels to the Weather Centre in Reading, England, actually called the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which opened in 1979. (This is also the source of the weather forecasts used in Norway by yr.no.) We are given information about the history of this centre, plus we get insights into how it works. What is impressive is how the model that is being run here becomes more accurate as time goes on. This chapter gives interesting insights into how such a weather center functions and how forecasts are created by supercomputers.

The third chapter of this part discusses how weather forecasts have become available to us users since the first forecast appeared on the internet in 1991. The importance of forecasts is in being able to use them. The introduction of smart phones changed the need to have forecasts available constantly, and not just once a day for the evening news on television.

The four chapter in this part is about what makes a good weather forecast as well as what a weather forecast is good for. The weather forecast is being primarily generated by computers, but humans are still need to get the information out to users, whether it is an individual needing to know whether it’s going to rain, or the media that can warn the general public of a major storm that is coming, or emergency services that have to be prepared for the big storm that creates problems.

Part IV: Preservation

The last chapter of the book is concerned with the future of weather forecasting and who is in control of it. Though forecasting has improved a lot in recent years, there are still a lot of hurdles in the way. One of the concerns is who owns the data that is being generated, whether it is individual observations or observations made by private networks. International cooperation has been the basis of the work so far, but will this cooperation continue into the future?

To quote Blum’s conclusion: “The weather machine is a last bastion of international cooperation. It produces some of the only news that isn’t corrupted by commerce, by advertising, by bias or fake-ness. It is one of the technological wonders of the world. At the beginning of an era when the planet will be wracked by storms, droughts, and floods that will threaten if not shred the global order, the existence of the weather machine is some consolation.”

I really enjoyed this book and I recommend it to all of my readers. Enjoy!

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January Walk – Weather

When I walk on my own, I often write blogs in my head, but they don’t all make it onto the computer. Today I was thinking about the weather and how I have always been fascinated by it.

When I went out for an hour’s walk today, it wasn’t raining when I left the house, but I knew it could. After several days of rain, I knew the ground would be soggy and wet, so I dressed in rain gear including gumboots. Gumboots mean that I don’t have to worry about the puddles on the paths in the woods.

The weather affects us all, and I often will check the weather forecast on my phone several times in the day, either to decide when to go out for a walk, what type of walk I will get and whether to stay indoors. I also use it to plan activities for later in the week. A heavy snowfall reduces how much I am willing to drive. Rain after freezing temperatures will make roads very slippery and dangerous. A promise of sunshine will improve my humor and get me outside quicker. Cold days are good days to bake and use the oven to add heat to the house. Warm days mean that I cook less and put less heat into the house from cooking. At this time of year, January, I think more about rain, snow and ice, than about it being too warm.

Again we have had quite a bit snow that has melted with the rain. When walking on paths in the woods, this means that the paths often become streams.

The path in the woods today was also serving as a stream. Water runs downhill to about the middle of the picture, from both the foreground and the background. The water drains off from the puddle in the middle of the picture, off to the right and on down the hillside to the fjord.
I tried following the water upstream to see where it was coming from and found a small waterfall.
Wherever the water was coming from, it was definitely going downhill.

There are many times when running water creates a problem, both for the environment and for humans and animals. Running water has considerable force and can damage things. Flooding can be a result when there is more water than the water channel will hold. With the climate changing all over the world, flooding is becoming more of a problem, especially where people have built their homes on a natural flood plain (the area that a river needs to have when there is more than normal amounts of water in it).

One of the effects of running water is to wash away the sand and small pebbles in the ruts of gravel roads. This road leads to three cabins but the rain and melting snow, on a slope, have washed away some of the gravel and sand.
To avoid this kind of erosion on driveways and gravel roads, it is important to lead the water away from the ruts. Here on our own driveway, I have cut into the side of the gravel so that the water can run into the ditch on the left. It seems to be working well this winter.

On my walk today, the streams (as well as the pathways) were full of water.

A local stream as it comes out of the woods and crosses the beach at low tide. My intention had been to cross the stream on the beach, but the water was flowing so quickly and I would have to have put my feet on uncertain ground, that I changed my mind and crossed the stream where it went in a large pipe under the road.
As you can see in this picture, there is at least one channel on the beach where the water is flowing very quickly and I was uncertain as to how deep the water was.

Eventually the sun came out, about the time I came out of the woods and down onto the beach. I was able to push back my hood and enjoy a bit of sunshine. The last bit of my walk is all uphill, so it went slowly as I was enjoying being outside, in the fresh air and the sunshine.

As I was thinking even more about weather, I noticed that while I had been experiencing rain, on the far side of the sound, and at higher levels, there had been snow on the tree tops.

On the far side of Skarnsund, there was a dusting of snow on the trees at the top of the hill. On the open fields of the farm at Duklett, there was still plenty of snow that had not melted, even though at sea level there was very little snow left.

Once home again, I decided to look and see what books we actually have about the weather and I found three (though there could be more that I didn’t find) from different time periods.

I found the subtitle of this book, published in 1960, very interesting – calling meteorology a young science.
This Norwegian book about weather forecasting was published in 1982 and is a translation of a German book published in 1977.
Published in 2005, this appears to be a translation of a book originally published in English in Australia. This book, titled, “The Weather” claims to be a “visual guide to meteorology” and has a lot of good pictures that illustrate the weather phenomenon discussed.

Today, it is easy to look up information about the weather on the internet, so I doubt if I would buy another book about the weather. How we get our weather information, both locally, or internationally, has improved immensely in the last ten years. The weather forecast that I can get on my telephone or computer will show when precipitation is expected, what the temperature mostly likely will be, wind direction and air pressure. The forecast for the next 24 hours is usually reasonably accurate. Bad storms are given a lot of publicity in news media so one can be prepared.

Today I was relatively lucky with the weather. I got out of the house while it wasn’t raining. Most of the rain came while I was in the woods, in the relative shelter of the trees. Once I was out at the beach, the sun came out. I managed to get out in one of the short breaks in the rain. At the moment of writing, it is raining again, almost constantly.

I hope you can get outdoors today too, no matter what the weather.

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January Walk – Flooding

After a day of heavy rain and not getting outside at all, I decided to go for a walk today and see if there was any damage nearby.

This storm is bad enough that it has received a name, “Gyda” and it is affecting a large portion of Norway from the mountain passes in the south to northern Norway. Roads through mountain passes are closed, airlines have cancelled flights, ferries in vulnerable locations have been cancelled, roads are closed due to flooding or landslides and basements have been flooded. In some locations people have been evacuated from their houses as rivers have gone over their banks. At the time of writing this blog, the storm is not over and it is expected to continue to rain at least until tomorrow, but I think the worst is over for us, at least as far as water levels are concerned.

We live on a rocky hillside and though there is a stream not far away, it is on the other side of a small hilltop so even when it floods it does not come our way. We almost always get a mild period in January, when the snow melts. If rain comes at the same time, and the ground is still frozen, the melting snow and the rain water only run across the surface and can not sink into the ground.

We got snow on the 24th of December and we have had several snowfalls since then. There have been nice stable winter temperatures and the snow has piled up.

The accumulated snow on our terrace. This picture was taken on 5 January 2022 at 3 pm, just after sunset.

When I got up on Wednesday, the 12th of January, it had already started to rain and it rained almost constantly all of Wednesday. The temperature eventually rose to about 8 degrees Celsius. With the warm temperatures, as well as the rain it didn’t take long for the snow to disappear. As you can see in the picture above, there was about 20 cm of accumulated snow when the rain started.

We live in an area with a lot of cabins and few residents. I decided on my walk to see what was the status of the area. As I went on my usual walk towards the woods, along a road that goes to some of the cabins, I noticed two cars driving partway along this road and then backing up. Oh, oh. Something must be wrong. As I continue along the road I notice that the water has been much higher and crossed the road, instead of flowing under it.

This car stopped, then backed up and disappeared. You will notice that there is a slight dip in the road at this point. You can see the water pouring across the road. There is an intersection here and there is one road that comes towards me and one that goes off up the hill. In the picture, both roads will be heading off to the right in the picture.

Let’s have a look at what has happened. We live in an agricultural area with farm fields. When the snow melts, or it rains a lot, the water will run to the lowest lying area and continue on downhill until it gets to the fjord. At some point in the past, the farmers owning these fields have put in drainage pipes and the stream has been put underground. This allows the farmer to have more cultivated land. Unfortunately, when the ground is frozen, melting snow water and rain can not go down to the pipes, but instead flow across the field.

Here the water is starting to collect, at the bottom of a ploughed field. Note that where the stream is flowing, the ground has not been ploughed. This will be deliberate. Probably once a year, most likely in January, this flooding will occur.
At this point, the stream is supposed to be underground, but as has happened before, when the ground is frozen, snow melt and rainwater run across the surface. There was quite a flow of water, and from various signs in other places, the water level was already retreating a bit. There isn’t much snow left, so there is just the rain water now.
Looking back the way I have come. There is not normally a stream here, even when it is raining.
Here is where the water running across the field joins the stream as it comes out of a pipe (the pipe is difficult to see but at the left in the picture). The water was flowing quite quickly. The stream heads off to the right, makes a few bends and has quite a few trees along it.
Here, the small stream has more water than it can hold and has flooded its banks. No major problem here as there is plenty of room for the water to spread out.
But the stream is supposed to go under the road here, into a pipe that takes it under the field as well. The pipe did not have the capacity to carry all of the water, so it started flowing across the road. The water flows from right to left in the picture. On my way back, I saw a tractor had crossed the stream, on the road, so it wasn’t that deep, but far too deep for an ordinary car. I went across the field on the left and was able to avoid the stream.
Here the stream has spread out and following its old pathway. In the rainy season, this little section is often very soggy. I’ve never seen such a large pool of flowing water here before. When the children were small, there was sometimes a patch of ice here that they could skate on.
Normally this channel is dry as the water would go through a pipe. But the old stream bed is still there and the stream can use it when necessary.
Here is it quite obvious that water flows were much higher before I came. You can just see the stream on the right. There has been some damage to the road here, but not very much.
The pipe on the left is carrying the water that has come under the field. The water was flowing very quickly and there was also water coming through a pipe, at about the center of the picture, from the stream in the picture above.

I continued on my walk, with the intent of going through the woods. The path was very soggy, but I had gumboots on, so my feet stayed dry. It was raining lightly, but I had rain trousers and jacket on, with a hood pulled up, so it was pleasant to be out in the fresh air. My walk usually takes me up the hill, then around some cabins, then downhill almost to the fjord before climbing uphill again. However, today I did not make the round trip, but ended up going back the way I came. There is a second stream that needs to be crossed twice and I decided not to cross it today.

My turning around point. In the summer, this small stream can be very dry, but today it was full. Usually, it is easy to cross, even when there is water in it, but today the water was flowing so quickly that I decided not to take a chance. If I lost my footing, I would get very wet. In addition, the path that goes down the hill on the other side was also a stream, so the walking there would not be pleasant at all.

I enjoyed my walk, in fact, these pictures were taken on two different walks, one at about 11 am and one at about 2.30 pm. Plus degrees, fresh air (even though it was wet) and something to take pictures of, made both of my walks very pleasant. In addition, I saw that there was no major damage even though car access to the cabin areas was a bit restricted.

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Book: There’s No Such Thing As Bad Weather (Touchstone, 2017)

My daughter came across this book and I decided to read it. I enjoyed it so much that I want to share some of my ideas after reflecting about the book.

The book was written by a Swedish woman who lives in the United States and has two children. Having grown up in a village in Sweden and surrounded by people who enjoyed being outdoors, she was disappointed that where she was living in Indiana, children had little chance to play outdoors. She took her kids to live in Sweden for six months and wrote about many of the differences between the two countries as relates to bringing up children.

The book is primarily for parents and gives tips on how to raise children in a Scandinavian fashion. Here she includes information from Norway, Denmark and Finland as well as Sweden. I could relate to much of the information that she had gathered about the advantages for children spending at least some time outdoors, every day, no matter the weather.

At the moment of writing this, it is a dark December day in Norway. There are only a few hours of daylight every day, and though I try to go outside most days, some days it is just not appealing to be outdoors. But while reading this book in December it made me think about the importance of being outdoors, not only for children, but for adults.

Summary of the book by Linda Åkeson McGurk

  • Introduction: A Swedish Mother in Rural Indiana
  • Chapter 1: A Right to Nature
  • Chapter 2: Fresh Air is Good for You
  • Chapter 3: Just Let Them Play
  • Chapter 4: We Must All Take Care of Nature
  • Chapter 5: A Little Dirt Won’t Hurt
  • Chapter 6: Freedom with Responsibility
  • Chapter 7: Outside, There is a Better Connection
  • Chapter 8: It Takes a Village

The author starts by explaining the American trend (based on her experiences in Indiana) that parents are concerned that if their children aren’t reading by the age of four, that they will not get anywhere in life. To my mind as a parent, that is not understanding the stages of development that children go through. It is common in Scandinavia that children start school at six or seven years of age (both my children started at seven and they both have master’s degrees ) and they might go to a kindergarten or preschool before that. Both my children started at kindergarten (barnehage) at the age of three.

The author refers to several other authors who have written about different aspects of children and parenting (see the list below) and has found the facts which I will be making references to here. You will need to read the book to get things exactly right. The author is concerned that children need to get “fresh” air every single day. Of course, not all people are lucky enough to live where the outdoor air is actually good for you. But by going to parks and other areas of nature, you can get fresh air into your lungs.

Children do not need to have activities constantly organized for them. One of the things children need to learn is how to organize their time, how to be bored, how to take suitable risks, how to socialize with others. In addition, they need time with adults who actually talk to them, as that is how they build up their vocabulary. Curiosity about the world around us leads children to learn how things work, either through their own investigations or by asking adults appropriate questions.

The author is also concerned that if the next generation is going to learn to take care of nature, they need to come in contact with it and learn to love it. Looking at trees only on a screen does not give the same learning or loving attitude as a walk in a park with tall trees. Children like to investigate things and usually get dirty doing it. Research has been done that indicates that we are too clean now, and we don’t get some of the good bacteria that we need to live a healthy life. Playing in the dirt or sandbox is not a health problem.

Small children need quite a bit of supervision when they are outside. They need to be protected from dangerous situations, for example a car whizzing by on the road, but they also need to learn to take responsibility for themselves, for example, learning to cross roads at crosswalks. As children grow older, the borderlines of where they are allowed to be on their own should expand as they are able to handle longer distances from the house on their own.

It has been shown in many research projects, that being outside in nature is good for mental health, not only in children but in adults.

A Scandinavian Mother’s “Get Up and Go Outside” Manifesto includes the following points (mostly directly quoted from pages 209-211):

1 There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes. Whatever the weather, children must be dressed appropriately, whether it is sunshine and warm, rainy and wet, or snow and cold. Learning to dress yourself and your children appropriate to the weather is important for the parent to learn. Make sure footwear is appropriate too. There are, of course, certain types of weather which do not suit outdoor play, such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, or flash floods.

2 Fresh air is actually good for you. It reduces the risk for common infections, near-sightedness, vitamin D deficiency, and obesity. It will also lessen the symptoms of ADHD, anxiety and depression.

3 Unstructured outdoor play has everything kids need for healthy physical, social, and cognitive development in the early years. Older kids need time to play too.

4 Our modern indoor lifestyle has made kids too clean and likely triggered an epidemic of immunological disorders. To bring some beneficial germs back into your child’s life, ditch that hand sanitizer and let him sink his hands deep down in dirt.

5 Kids need risky play to learn how to assess risk and prepare for adulthood. Activities can include climbing trees, sliding on frozen puddles, using real tools and walking to the park without an adult.

6 If we want our kids to keep a foot in the natural world, we need to pry them away from their screens sometimes, and do things outdoors as a family. The adults must leave their screens behind too.

7 Find some like-minded people and figure out how you can get kids back outside in your community. Working with others makes it easier.

8 Children and nature make a really good fit. By immersing kids in the natural world early, we’re increasing the chances of them wanting to take care of it later in life.

References to Other Books

  • Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv. Algonquin Books, 2008.
  • Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children, by Angela Hansom. New Harbinger, 2016
  • Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting, by Carl Honoré. HarperOne, 2009
  • Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Nature Education, by David Sobel. Orion Society, 1999.
  • Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World, by B. Brett Finlay and Marie-Claire Arrieta. Algonquin Books, 2016.
  • Free-Range Kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without going Nuts with Worry), by Lenore Skenazy. Jossey-Bass, 2010
  • Unplugged: 15 Steps to Disconnect from Technology and Reconnect with Nature, Yourself, Friends, and Family, by Jason Runkel Sperling. Kindle Edition, 2016.
  • Vitamin N: The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life, by Richard Louv. Algonquin Books, 2016

Personal Thoughts on Being Outdoors

We all have our personal experiences from childhood which will depend a lot on where you actually grew up and how your parents were with you. I was fortunate to grow up in the 1950s and 60s in an urban area where everyone owned their own house and there was a yard at the front of the house, and a yard at the back of the house. Most houses with children would have had at least some grass to play on though we also had vegetables and fruit in our garden at the back. The back yards were usually fenced, so separate from the neighbours and the front yards were usually unfenced. There were a lot of houses with children my age so I had people within easy reach to play with. Particularly in chapter 8, Linda McGurk takes up the situation that for children to play outdoors a lot, it has to be what everyone else is doing too.

The message I remember hearing was “Go out and play”. I was expected to be outside the house and either play by myself or find someone else to play with. If the weather wasn’t that great, I could use blankets under a roof and make myself and my dolls a nice place to play house. When the weather was good, I might play with one of my girl friends out in the sunshine. But I also remember sitting on a blanket in the shade (and having to move as the shade moved) playing with my dolls. I remember climbing trees, using roller skates on the side walk, playing Annie Oakley, riding a tricycle and pulling a wagon, or playing hopscotch marked out on the side walk, all usually with one or more friends.

Elementary school was a five-minute walk from the house and I went home for lunch almost every day, giving me time to stretch my legs as well as get a warm meal in the winter months. The school had a very large outdoor area, with various types of areas to play in, including several areas with a lot of trees, some of which we could climb up a few branches. There were playing fields as well as paved areas for skipping rope and playing hopscotch. The children spread out over the large area giving those who had a need to run around lots of opportunity to do that. Occasionally the weather was so bad (usually heavy rain), that we had to play indoors during recess, in very noisy basement areas that nobody really enjoyed. I think having a long lunch hour and a recess with outdoor play helped us to sit still when we were in the classroom.

My children were primarily brought up in a rural environment, living in a single family dwelling with farm fields beside us and no playmates within easy walking distance. When they were young, I spent time outdoors with them and they were given more freedom to be outside on their own as they grew older. They were both fortunate to have their early years before computers were very common and long before hand-held devices were available. The limits of physical freedom were defined by the size of our lot, which eventually expanded as they were encouraged to walk to a friend’s home or to cycle somewhere on their own. Unfortunately we parents were also obliged to drive them a lot. However, they would be encouraged to play outside even when visiting friends.

Both of my children attended kindergarten from when they were three years old until they began school at the age of seven. Kindergartens in Norway still have several hours of outdoor play, usually in a fenced-in area around the main building. Here they can dig in a sandbox, play on swings, ride tricycles, or make up their own games. They learn to socialize with others their own age. They learn to follow the rules set by the staff. For my children as well, the kindergarten was where they learned Norwegian as we used English at home.

Once my children started school, the elementary school was five kilometers away and they got a bus to school. Catching the school bus was part of the regular routine of learning responsibility for one’s own activities. Even at elementary school, there was always recess with outdoor play, no matter the weather. The children were expected to wear appropriate clothing to school to be outside both during recess and lunch hour. Sometimes adults would organize activities, but mostly they were outside to prevent bad behaviour and to mediate disputes between the children.

As an adult, I like to spend time outdoors. I can get discouraged if the weather does not look good from inside. I don’t like being outside in the dark, which makes limitations on when I can be out in the winter months. We live in a part of Norway where it seldom rains non-stop for hours at a time. It is more likely to be showers on and off all day, so it is easier to get outside while it isn’t raining and even stay outside with whatever I’m working on even if another shower comes along. In the winter, I like shovelling snow off the driveway as it gives me both fresh air and exercise as well as being useful. In the summer, I have a large garden to work with, though it can be discouraging to work when it is pouring with rain, which it often does in the summer. Not all summers here are warm and dry. But that just means that one has to learn how to dress suitably for the weather.

I have always found that going for walks is a good remedy for a bad mood. It gives me time to think through problems. If I am walking through the woods, I have to concentrate on where to put my feet and problems seem to melt away. I have also heard that having trees visible from the windows in your house is good for mental health.

The municipality that I live in has had a summer program called InderøyTurer (Inderøy Walks) where trails are marked in the wild areas. There are usually about 30 different walks and one gets points based on how long the walk is and how difficult a trail it is. There are always some easy walks for those in wheelchairs, so that handicapped people are encouraged to get outside too. I read just recently in the local newspaper that this summer there was a record number of visits to these posts. We use an app on our smartphones and are able to check in using our phones. This is an encouragement to get people out of their houses and take their children with them.

I would like to encourage everyone to spend time outdoors, preferably in nature or near trees, every day. Whether you spend half an hour or several hours, being outdoors will give you fresh air, exercise and time away from the screens in your life. Enjoy!

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A December Walk

Going for walks in December can be difficult for me. I actually don’t mind being out in the rain or the snow, but I dislike the wind. The problem is getting out of the house. Once I am outside with the appropriate clothes on, I enjoy being out in nature and the temperature is not very important.

The other challenge with getting out for walks in December is the short window for daylight in which to go for walks out in nature, away from houses and lighting. For example, today, the 19th of December, two days before the winter solstice, sunrise was at 10.03 and sunset was at 14.22. When it is cloudy, it doesn’t seem very bright outside at sunrise or sunset. When looking outside from a brightly lit house, it seems darker than it actually is, once you are outside.

Weather-wise, December this year has been very varied. At the beginning of the month, we had quite cold temperatures, down to -12 degrees Celsius. We had snow on the ground and sunshine during the few hours of daylight. Then about the 13th of the month, it warmed up to +8 degrees Celsius and started to rain a lot. The snow disappeared. The ground is soggy. Paths in the woods are small streams or large puddles.

Today I went for about an hour’s walk starting at 11:30. I took a walk that goes both on dirt roads, paved roads and forest trail. I put on rain trousers and rain jacket. Toque and mitts were also put on. I wore winter walking boots that kept my feet dry in spite of the soggy ground. I enjoyed myself as it is quite a while since I have been out for a walk in the woods.

My goal was to get to Bjønnbråtte, which is on a cliff top. First I follow some gravel roads which are very easy walking. As I climbed up the hill, it was noticeable that it had been trying to snow, rather than rain, as I got higher up. There wasn’t much, but the temperature must have been close to freezing point and I had to be careful that I didn’t slip.

Once I got into the woods, the trail was not only damp, but the stream was following it and there were large puddles to pick my way around. The walk to Bjønnbråtte is about 20 minutes from home.

Picture taken at 11:52, from Bjønnbråtte, looking towards Ytterøy. This is the end point of one of my favourite walks. This point is on a cliff that goes straight down to the water.

Today I decided to walk home via Sysvedalen and Vangshylla. At the bottom of Sysvedalen is a very small beach, used mostly for pulling small boats up on land to be stored there when not in use. It is a pebble beach, not sand. What attracted my attention today was the amount of seaweed that had been washed up on the beach. It has been quite stormy lately and today I was there at about high tide. Looking up the data about high tide, it was highest, at 307 cm, at about 11:50 which is quite a high tide for us. It was a full moon last night, which gives us quite high tides.

Looking south-west from the beach at Rotvollvika. Picture taken at 12:05, shortly after high tide. In the background is Ytterøy.
Looking south-east from the same beach at Rotvollvika. This picture was also taken at 12:05.
Taken from the road down to Vangshylla at 12:15. It was raining at the time and I was fascinated by the light in the sky.
Taken from the road to Vangshylla at 12:15. Note the light in the sky and the ramps to the boats in the small boat harbour. It is high tide and you don’t have to walk very much downhill to get to the boats.
As I continued on uphill, the sky to the north had the most light. This was caused by a break in the clouds though it was still raining where I was. The picture was taken at 12:21.

Once I was home again, I was glad that I had gone outside. I often wonder why I don’t get out more, as I really enjoy myself, even if it is raining. The weather forecast is for snow again, perhaps even tonight. I’ll just have to see what it is like tomorrow and make an effort to get outside again.

I hope you, my readers, are getting out for fresh air and exercise regularly. Don’t put it off, no matter the weather. Just find a terrain that suits you, dress for the weather and away you go. Remember the Scandinavian expression: “There is no such thing as bad weather”, but you do have to dress appropriately for the weather that you have.

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Fall Colours

Near Vangshylla, 2021.10.01

A while ago my daughter asked me if the trees here were starting to change colour yet and though the answer at the time (about the middle of September) was “no”, this blog is an answer to her question. The pictures were taken on the 1st of October, 2021, either on our own lot or on my walk up to a local dairy to buy milk.

I love the different seasons we have where we live. There are four distinct seasons and each has its own characteristics. Fall, or autumn, is when the nights get cooler, some of the trees loose their leaves and most flowers have gone to seed. Where we live there are often storms with a lot of wind and rain. There is also less and less daylight each day until we get to the winter solstice. Geese are flying south and other migratory birds disappear for a few months.

Some bushes have a lot of colour to them. The leaves on these ones turn red and there are black berries. I think this bush is aronia, or black chokeberry.

Meteoriologists in Norway have their own definition of fall: “Når døgnmiddeltemperaturen er mellom 0 og 10 grader og temperaturtendensen er fallende gjennom perioden, da er det høst, sier klimaforsker Stein Kristiansen ved Meteorologisk institutt.” (source) – “When the average daily temperature is between 0 and 10 degrees Celsius, and the temperatures are generally falling, then it is fall/autumn, says climate researcher Stein Kristiansen from The Norwegian Meteorological Institute (website).

This year we have not been below 4 degrees Celsius at night and daytime temperatures have been between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius. I think the amount of daylight affects trees too. Many smaller plants die off once their seeds have been made. If we have a very dry summer, I notice that the birch trees will lose leaves even in July or August to save water.

Some of the fields are still green, but where the grains have been harvested the field is now a yellowish brown. Our woods are a combination of deciduous trees (which lose their leaves) and coniferous trees (which retain needles all winter, though they also shed some of their needles at this time of year). Also notice the red stick at the side of the road. It serves a dual purpose: first to tell drivers at night where the edge of the road is and second, to tell those who plough the snow in the winter where the edge of the road is.
These bushes lay close to the ground, but the house owner has chosen four types of bushes that each give a different colour to the slope at this time of year.
Trees that stand alone, like this birch tree, can often have more vivid colours.
Grasses that are not cut, turn yellow as the seeds mature. The green fields are grass fields that are cut to provide fodder for cows and they will stay green all winter, or until ploughed.

However, I was also surprised to see some flowers still blooming.

A dandelion was having a second blooming.
Red clover was still blooming along the side of the road.
Achillea millefolium. This is very common here, especially along roads. It is called common yarrow in English and ryllik in Norwegian.
Two late blooming daisies.
In my own garden, plants are also turning various colours as their lifetimes are over. The ones you see here are all perennials and most of them will come up from the roots next spring.
Last of all, we think of the fall season as the time of year that the leaves fall off the trees. In this area of our yard, the trees have already gotten a good start at getting rid of their leaves and giving the gardener something to do.

We are only at the beginning of fall now. The next two months will show even more changes in nature around us, as the days grow shorter and the temperature drops. More trees will change colour. More leaves will fall, as not all trees lose their leaves at the same time. While the days are still nice, I will continue to enjoy walks several times a week.