The shortest days of the year - are now. The sun goes up at 08:43 and down already at 14:48 here in Stockholm. Not much light or sunshine to speak of. Nevertheless, after the coldfront yesterday morning, it is expected that we get a totally sunny Sunday due to a high pressure area and still lots of winds in the higher atmosphere (preventing low clouds or fog to form).

I have no clue when i saw the sun the last time... it feels like an eternity.

Out at the balcony, stands my Olympus - where i make a starry night exposure. This time (and for the first time) with the Live Comp feature - allowing the shutter to stay open indefinitely (as long the battery lasts), while only the star light will expose - turning into star trails - without overexposing the shadows.

I will not let the camera stay with open shutter for very long. Perhaps a half hour or so, that's enough. Normally, the image would here in the city get totally overexposed if i kept the shutter open for 30 minutes at ISO 80 and aperture ƒ1.2

But this will not get overexposed - thanks to the Live Comp feature.

Really cool.

The result turned out fascinating

As I said, it is the first time i used the Live Comp on stars. For some reasons I was never interested in it before. I thought star trails are boring... Well they become easily boring if you do them all the time, i guess. But being the first photo with 30 minutes exposure (á 8 sec each) - and then you get a lovely RAW file... what is there not to love ?

I will make another (vertical) shot, but pointing towards NE; towards the city of Stockholm, where the star VEGA relatively low shines the brightest. Our upcoming summer star... (well, that will take quite some time).

I wish to see how much the light from the city affects the Live Comp exposure as such. Plus i will disable IS (image stabilization) in order to see at pixel level in the star trails if there is any difference in jaggedness). In the previous exposure, i forgot to turn it off - but the star trails looked almost 100% smooth at pixel level.

Curiously, the second exposure without IS (next page) - showed more jagged start trails at pixel level.

Strange...

Let's go to the Weather situation, shall we ?

SMHI's outlook for Sweden

Saturday evening: Showers of rain or snow in the north

A high-pressure ridge is moving in over Scandinavia. In Götaland, this means that fog and mist will form in many places during the night, but further north, the night will be clear over large parts of the country.

Despite this, the nighttime weather will not be particularly cold, as the northwesterly wind will only slowly subside in the high pressure, which will mix the air and keep the temperature up. In the northernmost mountain range, snow showers are expected to continue throughout the night and tomorrow.

 

Sunday: High pressure ridge with plenty of sunshine

High pressure will bring winter sunshine to virtually the entire country. Clouds may be slow to clear, especially in western Götaland, but even here the skies are expected to brighten somewhat during the day. There will also be heavy cloud in the mountain regions, and snow showers are expected throughout the day in the northernmost parts.

 

Early next week: High pressure and colder weather

On Monday, the high pressure will have grown so powerful that it will cover not only Scandinavia but also Finland. This will cause cold air to rush down over Finland with northern winds, and the weather in Sweden is also expected to be colder at the beginning of the week.

However, the weather will remain dry, and where no snow has fallen previously, Christmas will probably not be white, but possibly frosty.

 

prognosis for 22 Dec 2025

 

In any case, the winter sun will return in many places, but in Götaland, haze and fog may once again form at night and be difficult to dispel. And in northernmost Norrland, it is difficult to assess how much cloud cover the cold air will bring with the north wind.

On Tuesday, the day before Christmas Eve, clouds are expected to dominate across the country. In general, mostly dry weather is expected, with possible snowfall passing over northernmost Norrland. The Baltic Sea region may be affected by some showers or snow flurries in the east wind, but this is highly uncertain.

 

prognosis for 24 Dec 2025

 

Christmas

The high pressure will linger on Christmas Eve, but it will weaken somewhat and the sun may appear at times in many parts of the country. On Christmas Day, milder air may return from the west.

The forecast for Boxing Day is still uncertain, but a deep low-pressure system north of Scandinavia may bring in even milder air and at the same time cause windy weather in Norrland, in the mountain regions in combination with snow showers. In Götaland and Svealand, the weather will probably continue to be dominated by high pressure.

 

prognosis for 26 Dec 2025