Well, as of now - the weather has warmed up ever so sliiiiiiightly. Not much, in order words - but warm air is on its way to Scandinavia with help of a warm front, and a high pressure area. At least for a shorter time.

Went quickly away

The snow went all away during the morning hours, and not much was left early afternoon. Yet, the view was simply amazing as you found yourself in a fairytale of some sorts. As if it was February after a period of no snow, and then winter returns again. It felt... weird. And cool. Both annoying as it was fascinating.

But the day stayed overcast and dull, followed by mist, drizzle and again low temperatures. As it was this morning when i came home, only 1-2°C. Even as it today went up to 7-8°C, it is already chilly (cold) late afternoon. Reminding of the comment; "There is no warmth in the air".

The many flowers that sprung up during that second week of April, when temperatures rose to 18°C at the most - look rather beaten up after the cold that followed ever since.

In average (1-26 April 2024) the month has now fallen below average largely over entire Sweden (when compared to the new climate period of 1991-2020), see below. This might change a little again, because on monday, 18°C are predicted after a warm front brings much warmer air into our realm.

Sunshine. What sunshine !?

If the last years have been filled with sunshine over most parts, exccept deeper winter - then this year has seem to have broken the pattern. Since 1 Jan 2024, sunshine hours have been way below that of last years sunshine hours (up until 27 April).

Let me illustrate this here:

Way below normal...

February and April 2024, have been very poor, to say the least. Especially April 2024 has been a kick in the butt - compared to April 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 who all had sunshine rich times - in average 8-9 hours every day. Now; we barely made it do a daily average of 3 hours. (or in total 82 hours). That's what you get in average in Winter February. Which means; not much sunshine, really.

It will be interesting to see how May 2024 will develop...

The following chart illustrates the sunshune hours in Stockholm every day since 30 Oct 2023 until today, 27 April 2024.

As you can see, where springtime starts up... but the clouds didn't allow any massive rise in sunshine hours. Like a plane that doesn't win in height, not fully taking off the ground.

When can follow the blue 30 day Ø average line; it doesn't take off during March. While instead staying below 4 hours and then even falling to 3 hours instead.

Now if you compare that to the very sunny spring of 2022, you see the difference more clearly. It is perhaps an unfair comparison, because March 2022, was exceptionally sunny, way above normal average.

Temperatures

The temperatures for April 2024, have been a mixed bag. I wouldn't say that they been unusual low - because there are plenty of examples in which Stockholm had equially or colder April months in the past. If it wouldn't been for that warm second week in April 2024, the total average would been much colder !

To get temperatures up to 18°C in Stockholm during the first two weeks in April, is a bot unusual (albeit it has happened before, albeit not that common really. So, the whole sum for April 2024 got lifted because of that. And we still have those 18°C coming on monday.

If the prognosis holds its promise. (When do they do that ?!)