Nah...

The temperatures still leave quite a bit to desire here in Stockholm. It just doesn't want to exceed 20°C, it seems. Which also applies to the outlook for the next 1-2 weeks, again staying short of 20C, perhaps exceeding it slightly and then falling back again.

For a change, an ordinary, typical Swedish June / early summer, with unsteady weather, some rain, some sunshine, and some "warmth".

Canadian Wildfire smoke over Europe

Media didn't write about it until 7 days later (!) - that smoke has appeared over parts of Europe.

I saw it already appearing over Stockholm's sky, on 31 May 2025... because I often look around, wondering what's going on in the skies. Paying attention - and wondering, what those "high clouds" were. They looked first like a kind of very thin haze, reminding me either of cirrus clouds, or perhaps of volcanic origin. But none of it was the case. If it would been cirrus clouds, they would have appeared in Infrared / IR satellite charts as white patches. But they didn't.

Any volcanic origin perhaps ? Well, there was no volcano in the way. As the smoke was coming from the direction of Iceland - but there was no eruption. So, my primary suspicion was that most likely it could be the smoke from the Canadian Wildfires.

And that's exactly what took place. In the mean time - the smoke has spread over ENTIRE Europe, even all the way into Siberia.

• Widespread smoke over Europe and towards western Siberia, 6 June 2025 04.00 UTC

What perhaps surprised me the most

It was how sudden those Canadian Wildfires appeared over Canada. I mean the immense sudden spread almost out of nowhere. Like somebody lit the whole thing up on purpose ? Of course I am aware that they appear every year. But it wasn't reported until 29 May, and there it was all of the sudden just so enormous (together with the immense smoke).

Second; that the smoke was able to arrive over Europe already 2 days later. I have never seen satellite images being so SUDDENLY filled with smoke. This is often visible best when you look at sunset and sunrise satellite chart (taken in visible light). I do pay attention to the looks of satellite images, but can't remember having seen such large portion being covered with clearly visible smoke.

Well if they want to do sun dimming, that's a way to do it, no ? Plus that every particle in the smoke, adds further to the creation of water droplets -> clouds.

Be curious.

Question everything !

• Smoke over Stockholm, 31 May 2025 at 06:19 in the morning looking towards north and NE

• more smoke is transported into Scandinavia - over Stockholm, 1 June 2025 looking towards north at 00.00

• Stockholm, 1 June 2025 at 03.43 looking towards Northeast, with a small "halo" type sunrise. Smoke is still visible.

• Stockholm, 1 June 2025 at 08.21 looking towards East, the sky is milky-blue-white showing the smoke

• Incredible dark moon, as if there was an eclipse; as dark and red it usually appears like. The sky is almost clear of clouds
4 June 2025, at 02.06

6 June 2025 at 05.34 - the sun over Stockholm is veiled with warm patches of smoke

7 days later

Now they woke up. Yesterday on 6 June first reports about the Canadian wildfire smoke covering Europe. Boy, that took time. I often wondered why nobody was writing about it.

More coming in

There is now another big patch of denser, brownish looking smoke coming in via Iceland, i saw in this mornings satellite image. Since it is so cloudy over Stockholm, the smoke isn't visible here, being above the cloud layer. Yah, the weather is funky... it doesn't seem willing to "take off" like a summer month. As if something is holding it back.

I am not sure how much and in what exact way the vast amounts of Canadian Wildfire smoke is affecting the weather. It should in theory lead to more clouds, given that any tiny particle - always marks the origin of creating a water droplet. (It means you need a particle in order that water droplets can appear) Many water droplets create clouds. And so on...

"Blood Moon", extremely dull at times...

More photos from an exceptional dark moon, at the same time reddish-orange colored from last night (9 June 2025). It wasn't or isn't full moon yet - but its appearance was like that during a total eclipse.

Really, really weird looking. The smoke continues to affect the skies over Europe - and I have seen that the smoke even has reached the far east of Siberia (almost towards Alaska). This just seems to continue...

Southern Stockholm on 9 June 2025

Southern Stockholm on 9 June 2025, a tell tale that shows you how dark the normally very bright moon actually looked like yesterday evening

To photograph the moon like that

Is trickier than i thought. I mean to show how DARK it actually was, isn't as easy. You need something bright to compare with - then it becomes obvious. but if there isn't anything bright in the photo, the moon often gets brighter than what it looked like to the naked eye.

Normally, when the moon is almost full, it is exceptionally bright. But yesterday evening, at times it was barely visible to the naked eye. It looks so.. mysterious, almost "sick" / kind of not normal. The sky was almost clear at the time i took these images...

I am still puzzled

that the smoke showed up as if somebody put a light switch on. From one day to the next.

I can not understand that the Canadian wildfires would lit up over such vast areas so sudden from one day to the next. That i feel, makes me suspicious. I do not remember that this much smoke has entered the European Realm, so sudden, and so persistent over what is now 10 days.

Since I do study satellite charts every day, I would have noticed that. This massive, and so sudden - I do not remember ever having see that. So yes, I am curious, if there is an aspect to it, that is hidden to our eyes / knowledge / awareness. I feel there is something off about it.

If this is so normal, I would have seen it earlier in satellite charts over Europe in the past decades. The wildfire smoke in visible light taken satellite images, looks different from both very moist airmasses, and dust from the Sahara entering Southern Europe.

It becomes more visible in the satellite charts when you look 2 hours before sunsset, and 1-2 hours after sunrise. Also in the real sky, the smoke becomes much more visible at sunrise/sunset.

9 June 2025

Here you see how it looks yesterday at sunset looking towards the north.

Notice, that the sky to the left

was warm colored. However, that part was free from any clouds except near the horizon, showing lower Sc (Stratocumulus) clouds. Now the Canadian wildfire haze became much more visible to the naked eye and pretty pronounced; like a plastic wrap kept across the sky. This is what I meant with that the haze always becomes much better visible at sunrise and sunset. Not so much during the day (other then that the blue clear sky is more pale these days).

There were no cirrus clouds visible in the sky !

I even checked the satellite images for that, which is easiest to do in IR, because Cirrus clouds (or high clouds), usually show up like bright white clouds, the higher and colder the clouds are.

Smoke clouds are invisible in infrared satellite images.

My assumption is that these smoke clouds / this weird layer, is located at around 6000 meters. I noticed this the other day when Altocumulus clouds appeared below the haze. Earlier I thought it was lower... but it seems to be somewhere in the middle - but not as high like Cirrus clouds.