This year, we spent the Christmas holidays in Central Ostrobothnia. This lies on the west coast of Finland, approximately 500km north of Helsinki. Unusual for the time of year, we could only enjoy two days of thin snow cover. Normally, there is snow cover from end of November/beginning December until mid-end April, with around 145-160 days of snow per year (see the snow cards from the Finnish Meteorological Institute). But in Finland too, weather is becoming more chaotic.

Around the winter solstice, there are around 3 hours of daylight – in the picture, you can admire the famous Finnish midday sun. If there is no cloud cover, however, it still takes quite a while before it gets properly dark, and often you get treated to hours of colourful sunset and afterglow.