Tromsø winter - February

February 2018 was characterised by beautiful weather, it was cold but sunny and the days were getting longer quickly. The conditions were often good for the formation of ripe on the trees, creating beautiful large ice crystals on the branches.

The snow conditions were pretty bad for skiing though, very hard and icy, but perfect for hiking with microspikes or crampons. Such a long spell of cold clear weather is quite rare for Tromsø.

In the middle of February I had a short break from the short days and cold weather in Tromsø to attend a 3 day meeting in beautiful Valencia, Spain. The meeting was very useful and busy, but I had a few hours before and after the meeting to see some of both the historic centre of Valencia and the very modern City of Arts and Sciences. More about this in the next blog.

Tromsø winter - January

They say it is spring, but here in Tromsø there is little that reminds of that. It has been snowing nearly continuous for the last 5 days and the snow depth is now over a meter. The heavy snowfall also leads to high avalanche danger and road closures. But after a long spell, 7 weeks or so, of beautiful cold and clear weather, but without fresh snow earlier this winter, the new snow improves skiing conditions and is very welcome.

We arrived back in Tromsø in the middle of January, near the end of the mørketid, the dark winter, and right before the annual Tromsø International Film Festival TIFF. I have enjoyed working as a volunteer for the filmfestival for the last 4 years and wanted to join them again this year. This year my duties included a shift at the outdoor cinema - they show cartoons and short movies on a screen in the main square, very popular for school groups - and in the beautiful old cinema Verdensteatret.

Verdensteatret

After the filmfestival it was time to start looking for the sun. Soldagen, the first day the sun can be seen again in the centre of Tromsø after mørketid, is on the 21st January. However, it takes a few more days before the sun reaches the northeastern part of the island where our workplaces are, so we had to wait til the next weekend to see it.

A lunar eclipse would be visible from Tromsø on the 31st January and I decided to hike up one of the local mountains to try to get some photos. It was cold and clear with a beautiful sunset and I got some nice pictures of the colours and a partially eclipsed moon. It was unfortunately still too light to see the full eclipse.

Sunset over Malangen

Last glimpse of sun light on the Lyngen Alps

Moon coming back after the eclipse

Looking out over Tromsø from the top of the cable car