When even Swedes are freezing

A high-pressure system is causing extreme cold in northern Sweden. Temperatures below minus 40 degrees have been recorded, which even challenges the Swedes. Minus 30 degrees in January are not necessarily unusual in northern Sweden. But the current cold snap is pushing even winter-experienced Swedes to their limits, including Matilda Eneby from Jokkmokk, over 1,000 kilometers north of Stockholm.

“The coldest I have experienced before was minus 38, but last night it was minus 42.5 degrees”, she says. Eneby asked at school, but there will be no “cold weather leave”. “You certainly don’t see as many people outside as usual, but otherwise everything is running as normal here.”

High-pressure system from Sweden to Russia

Temperatures below minus 40 degrees were measured in two other locations. The reason: a high-pressure system over northern Sweden, Finland, and parts of Russia.

Reindeer herder Erik Sarri is used to working outdoors in the cold, but like many others, he underestimated the extreme cold. He was on his scooter on his way to the mountains to tend to the reindeer. “But it was too cold. If something happens out there, you quickly get cold and have problems”, he says. “You can really feel the extreme cold. If you take off your gloves for a moment, you immediately lose feeling in your fingers.”

Ski lifts and trains at a standstill

Victor Gustavson from Sorsele, about 250 kilometers further south, had to close his ski lift due to the weather. “It’s currently minus 27 degrees here, and it’s getting colder every hour,” says the ski lift operator. “We shut down operations at minus 22 for safety reasons. In case of an accident, it can take a while for help to arrive, and we naturally don’t want to risk frost damage.”

And it’s not just ski lifts that are at a standstill for safety reasons, trains are as well. The Swedish railway has completely halted train traffic from Umeå, over seven and a half hours by car north of Stockholm.

When the temperature drops below minus 30, it affects the contact lines, which are made of a type of steel alloy, explains Bengt Olsson from the traffic authority. “They become brittle and there is a risk of them breaking when a train comes. We do not want to expose passengers to this risk.”

Cold affects the whole body

The official cold record in Sweden was measured in 1966: minus 52.6 degrees. Temperatures that can have health consequences, says Albin Stjernbrandt from Norrland University Hospital.

“At minus 30 degrees or colder, the whole body is affected. Breathing becomes difficult, you have to cough, blood pressure increases, and the entire circulatory system is stressed,” explains the senior physician. “We are simply less capable. And of course, there is the risk of frostbite.”

The best protection against this is to stay indoors. However, for those who have to go outside, it is recommended to keep it as short as possible in the coming days, as the extreme cold is expected to persist in northern Sweden until the weekend.