Oslo: winter, but no snow ...
There is not so much walking in this #walkwithme post, mostly just photos from my own neighbourhood, over two mornings and one evening. Winter is definitively here, the last days we've had cold temperatures, between -5C and -10C. The first morning it was very humid and foggy, the next morning it was sunny.
There is something white outside, but it's not snow ... at least, not in the Norwegian language. We would use the word "rim" - by googling "frozen dew" I came over the proper English name for it: hoar. While the physical phenomena is very well known to me, the English word was not. I was talking about climate with a Tamil later the same evening, it was a bit funny - he experiences the Oslo climate as "dry", while I claimed it was "humid". Well, I must admit that the average relative humidity at Sri Lanka probably is a lot higher than in Oslo in the summer time, and also that the absolute humidity is a lot higher there, but they for sure have no hoar.
To be fair, a great deal of the white stuff on the ground has actually formed in the air and fallen down - but the ice crystals was formed in the fog, few meters above the ground, not in clouds far above our heads. Maybe it's technically "snow" and not "hoar" if the crystallization happens in the air? Honestly, I don't know - I don't believe we had much of that in my hometown of Tromsø (ice crystals formed in low altitude air at low temperatures). There are two major differences from "real snow", the particles are very small, and there isn't a lot of them.
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The neighbour down to the right on the below photo has a very steep hill from his house up to the road, it can be very difficult getting a car up and down in the winter time. During the last few weeks he has been working on installing electric heating cables - he's still not completely done, hence the mess on the right side of the road.
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Such overalls as on the photo below are used by almost every kinder garden child in Norway in the winter time, and often in the shoulder seasons as well, typically with long woolen underwear under, and combined with mittens, a scarf, a warm hat and winter boots. It's quite practical not to have openings between the jacket and trousers when playing outdoors in the winter time, and also quite practical not to have to think about too many pieces of clothes when going out. On the flip-side toilet errainds for the girls are difficult, and it's also impractical when one moves between hot and cold zones, i.e. visiting a restaurant. Shoes have to go off when taking the suit on and off. For maximum comfort one shouldn't have anything under except for woolen underwear - but when taking it off in social settings, it's best to have some "nice" clothes over the underwear. Our eldest boy was mostly playing around indoors in the kinder garden in only woolen underwear, though I feel it's less appropriate now that we've moved to Oslo - our daughter is a bit obsessed with wearing nice clothes, and it would be quite inappropriate to walk around at school in only woolen underwear ... so, it can be quite stressful being a parent in the winter time - it's needed to keep order on lots of clothes, find it during stressful mornings, help the children to dress ... the one-piece helps a bit, but there is still quite many pieces to keep order on, the warm underwear, mittens, scarfs, hats, indoor clothing, spares of everything, things should be washed and dried, and multiply that with the number of children.
Previous winter I was quite often out in the dhingy, using a similar piece of clothing myself (but specially crafted for surviving when falling into the sea - relatively water tight and with built-in floating elements). I'm sweating a lot and need to undress - often even when taking a train or a bus, and I also like visiting coffee shops and cafés ... it was pretty hard.
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The fog made this night time photo quite spectacular. I'm curious on what kind of effect made the lights smear out vertically. It's not a photograph artifact, I could see it with my own eyes as well. I first thought it could be the artificially lightning intentionally or unintentionally pointing upwards causing such an effect ... but there is a bit of vertical smear around the moon as well. Some ice particles can be seen in the air close to the phone (like, the moon-alike particle above the moon).
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There is quite some time since my last #walkwithme post. Rest assured it has nothing to do with the Steem price slump to do - the earnings from my posts was anyway insignificant compared to the time cost of producing them. It's just that I usually don't take photos in the darkness, and that I don't have much energy for #walkwithme posts those days anyway.
The above photo was taken 17:30 in the afternoon - and it's already dark. November and December can be quite hard, if staying at work for a full workday, it may be dark when going there and dark when going home. It can affect the mood a lot, one sleeps more, feels more sleepy in the daytime (if I remember right, according to a study done in the 50s, the inuits would in average sleep some 14 hours pr day in the winter time), depressions are more normal winter time than summer time. Still, at least it's physically possible to see the sun even in the middle of the winter - at my earlier home town Tromsø in the far north we had two months with the sun permanently below the horizon - and maybe a week extra without sun due to the sun still hiding behind the mountains. Snow, or at least white ground can help a lot on the mood - darkness combined with black, wet, dirty, salty roads is for sure no fun.
Back here in Oslo, we had a nice sunny Saturday morning yesterday ...
position: geo:59.957416,10.892205 (geohack) - 2018-11-24 09:02:17 localtime - full quality
position: geo:59.957271,10.892038 (geohack) - 2018-11-24 09:18:05 localtime - full quality
position: geo:59.956802,10.89214 (geohack) - 2018-11-24 09:18:37 localtime - full quality
position: geo:59.956802,10.89214 (geohack) - 2018-11-24 09:18:42 localtime - full quality
Bonus photo from downtown, sunshine on the church and library.
position: geo:59.916297,10.744444 (geohack) - 2018-11-24 10:17:04 localtime - full quality
Selected photos available in original quality on IPFS QmW6cgbcJegpQga8LFghiyt9f5oJFHt8p8snUH4tYiYbPB. All photos taken available in original quality on IPFS Qmaf71TE4zwu1QjhPT621ceNDYfLMqKfoTTuL1MEd5v945. The CC BY-SA 4.0 license applies on both my photos and the article
Don't be afraid to criticize my posts. I will give a 100% upvote to any (unique) reply pointing out typos, grammar mistakes or mistakes in the facts presented. This applies to any post or comment from me, no matter how old. I also usually give upvotes to opposing points of view, particularly when a good and logically valid argument is given.
the first thing I thought was: OK, Norway is an amazing and beautiful country. Now I know about how is winter in Oslo... I live in a tropical country, but we have one state with snow (sometimes) Not all the year, but is cold all the time. It called Merida. is located in Andes mountains. Thank's for sharing your #Walkwithme ... now is #WalkingWithYou
Absolutely beautifully written and the photos are top quality and gorgeous. The whole scene looks simply stunning. My wife, who is Thai, loves the cold and snow and can't wait to get to the UK for Christmas and then upto Scotland for some snow! After also admiringyour photographs, she is also now checking out the cost of flights to Norway as a 'snow backup'!
What happens to your boat during the winter? Is she winterised and laid-up on hard standing in a marina or remains moored?
PS Thank you for still writing great content, I am bored senseless with seeing posts about Steem constantly dripping down my feed. As reader more than a writer, it's dire at the moment.
PPS Hoar or hoarfrost is the correct word. We'd use it when the frost is so hard, and it's so cold that the moisture in the air around the ground and plants causing that flowery crystalline effect. Beautiful
We had visitors from Singapore during the Chinese new year quite some years ago, while we were still living in Tromsø, that was really exotic for them - it was quite a decent amount of snow when they arrived, and of course they had never seen white stuff before. They enjoyed the stay so much they came back a couple of years later :-)
I have my boat in water all year around, and I'm doing winter trips with it also - though, not so often as in the summer time. We went for a yule holiday to Gothenburg one year, I enjoyed it a lot ... though, I'm not sure if the rest of my family agrees because they've vetoed a repetition ever since. In the easter holiday we either go skiing or boating. There is also an autumn holiday and a winter holiday from school (though no regular holidays for normal people, so not always we take time off from work during those vacations), we sometimes go boating. At new years eve we usually stay downtown in Oslo with the boat, right nearby the municipality fireworks.
Oh a winter cruise to Gothenburg sounds amazing! but to persuade them, tell them you're going to Antigua instead, then pretend to get lost ;-)
English Harbour is so overrated anyway!
I remember we went to Ireland and the UK once when we had only one child, I don't remember if it was in the winter season or the shoulder season, but I do remember people were commenting on the dress of my son, apparently such clothing is not normal over in the UK.
I've heard the children mostly play indoors in the kinder gardens in the UK, particularly if the weather is bad. Here in Norway it's considered essential that the children get to play outdoor every day.
Some exceptions, here in Oslo (where we by now have quite a lot of immigrants from quite a lot hotter climate) it's normal policy to keep the children indoors if the temperature drops below -10C. We also had one period in Tromsø, after several weeks with no new snow and mostly sub-zero temperatures they considered it too dangerous for the children to play in the kinder garden area (very slippery and very hard ground).
I think thats a fairly recent thing with not letting the kids out if its too cold. When I was a kid we loved the frosty morning breaktimes, making slides and generally messing about in the cold.
Times are different now. So over protective.
Artig og interresant med slike poster fra dagliglivet og nærområdet, man blir litt mer kjent med personene bak bloggen. Flotte bilder fra en fin by, takk for at du deler turen din med oss😊👍
It is the time when it slowly will get colder and colder, we are already dressed in winter clothes, although it is not really deep winter but due to the Christmas holiday in sight that brings us winter mood. On some of winter days I love just to watch through the window, that is when it is sunny but the road is covered with white snow and you are at home in front of fire place, that is another reason why I love winter, I can enjoy my fire place. Winter is also one of the favorite season for artists, to do such beautiful sunny day with snow reflecting the light and trees covered with white snow. I love your pictures, especially it is beautiful day, you were luck to be able to capture that moments. Thank you for sharing the winter days in Oslo :)
My Icelandic colleague says they have the word gluggaveður, or "window weather", for sunny beautiful days when the temperature is too cold to enjoy it in other ways than looking at it through the window :-)
Sitting by the fire is for sure nice - but I even like outdoor bonfires better. There are two Christmas markets here in Oslo, both features a nice bonfire where it's possible to sit and relax while the woman is wasting money on the market :-)
for someone who never see snow with her bare eyes and that's me, your story and pictures are amazing, I'd like to touch the hoar or frozen dew or whatever it is in english (English is not my first language :D) the vertical light is interesting though... hope that someone could make an explanation about it later.
thanks anyway for taking me walking with you.. I'm freezing and couldn't imagine what will happened to me if I were there, I think I need to stay close to the furnace:D
That sounds indeed a cool walk with your photos though not as cold as the "peak winter" photos that I used to see on media with very thick snow. How thick does the snow can get?
It is amusing that the vertical lights on the fourth photo are not of camera effects. I usually have something like that with my evening shots even if there is none that I see. I wonder if those were giant lights towards the sky.
The winter has just begun, so we're nowhere near "peak winter" yet :-)
We did have 2.40 metres of snow in Tromsø at the 29th of April 1997, that was pretty insane.
See also my post https://steemit.com/snow/@tobixen/snow-snow-snow
2.4 meters! But oh my God! There's the 8.meters!!! 😢How are you folks doing during those times? Do you evacuate somewhere or what? How soon does the snow melts assuming it's that 2.4 meters high?
I sort of did evacuate when it passed 2.10 metres ... jumped on an airplane and went on vacation to the south of Norway, I was a student back then, so I could do such things :-)
It was relatively warm and cozy in Oslo in the middle of April, snow gone long ago, I managed to forget my jacket in Oslo before hitch hiking to Bergen. That wasn't smart, it was very cold in the mountains, and I even got sort of stuck due to roads being closed due to a blizzard. Finally managed to take a train to Bergen.
I was in Bergen at the 28th/29th of April, and it was the first real spring day in Bergen that year - warm and comfortable, flowers starting to bloom, I was going around in shorts, t-shirt and roller skates. I did manage to exchange the shorts with long trousers in the toilet of the airplane. I don't remember what happened with my shoes, maybe I had forgotten them also somewhere ... at least I was still wearing T-shirt and roller skates when coming back to Tromsø, that was quite much of a shock :-) 29th of April was the last day of snowfall that year.
I don't remember for how long time snow lasted ... but I believe it was pretty much gone during the first week of June. It varies a lot from year to year, sometimes the snow is gone at the 1st of May in Tromsø, other times in late May. Come June, and whatever is left disappears fast ... in the lowlands. In the mountains we have snow that can lasts for several years, until it finally melts completely during an extraordinary warm summer.
In Oslo, the snow is typically gone by the 1st of April, it also varies a lot, but at least before May. The snow is lasting some more weeks in the upper parts of the forests. There are some skiing hills where they add lots and lots of artificial snow, they can also stand out white in the otherwise green landscape in the early spring.
Another "artifact" - as the snow is considered too polluted to be dumped on the sea, they have some special places where the snow is dumped, it's not always that all the snow on those dumping places melts before the next winter. (apropos, a recent survey found that 80% of the micro plastic found in the outer Oslo fjord comes from the roads - particles from tires and asphalt).
The 8 metre thing, that's in the mountains, nobody lives in such places. It's also probably an extreme and not an average (the 2.40 measurement in Tromsø was a point-measurement on the meteorological institute - considered an "average" spot) - in windy conditions, the snow typically blows away from some places and accumulates at other spots. That said, I have experienced to be out skiing and finding just a bit of a roof and a chimney from some cabin sticking up from the snow.
Wow, that sounds like an experience! You were blessed that flights were still available in spite of the thick snow. Aren't flights affected by the way? Like heavy rains affecting air traffic?
I wonder how life is with snow that thick lasting for months. I am imagining as if life slows down significantly. It is funny how one side of the earth is sunny while the other is freezing. How did you get a trouser in an airplane toilet? 😀
There is snow everywhere and they still add artificial snow? Who in earth is still too excited to generate artificial snow when it is all over the place?
In spite of all those, it is still somehow amusing that people find fun in it through skiing. I guess that is how it should go, find the positive in negative. 😊
Yes, the winter does affect the aviation quite a lot ...
Those three often causes severe traffic delays, but rarely closed airports.
There has been some fatal accidents due to icing. A quick googling lead me to two incidents, sk751 miraculously managed to do an emergency landing, no fatalities. Clear transparent ice had formed on the wings over the night, temperatures on the ground was like plus 1C, but the fuel tanks in the wing was full of very cold fuel after the evening flight, the airplane went through a normal de-icing procedure, but they failed to see that not all the ice was removed. Ice broke off the wings after takeoff and destroyed both engines. Then there is the American Eagle Flight 4184 where the probable cause of accident was icing on the wing, with the resulting loss of control over the airplane.
Icing can also be a big problem when being out on the sea in a boat when it's very cold and quite windy. As the boat hits the waves, the deck is constantly getting hit by a spray of sea water, the temperature of the water most likely being very close to the freezing temperature of salt water, around -2C. Due to the wind and low temperature, the temperature of the deck, mast, rig and other equipment is below -2C, so ice is continuously accumulating on the deck. This gets a problem due to the heavy weight - a ship is typically stable in the water when the center of mass is below the water line, when it's above the water line the ship is unstable and can capsize anytime. When ice starts accumulating like that, the crew has two and only two options - either to find a sheltered harbour, or to get out on the deck to chop ice. I've never experienced it myself, but it's for sure dangerous to move around on a slippery deck in the waves, and in addition it's very wet and cold when one constantly gets sprayed with almost-frozen sea water.
It can be great fun :-)
I had the trouser with me in my carry-on luggage. I guess I also had a bigger checked-in backpack, probably that's where my shoes and sweater was.
Wikipedia has a quite nice article on snowmaking.
Skiing is a big thing in Norway, and for going skiing it's needed with snow.
There are different reasons for generating artificial snow ...
hey @tobixen,
you surprised me with this post about snowless wintertime in Oslo. Yesterday I spoke with my buddy who lives near Kristiansand and he already mentioned something about snow, I am also following a Norwegian Landscapes Photographer @photovisions who is posting pictures covered in the white since last few weeks. As we can see, Norwegian capital city is Hot Hot Hot !
With -9C it wasn't exactly Hot Hot Hot previous weekend ... but now we're in the red again, it has been raining quite a lot over the last couple of days.
Here just start also go very cold ... winter is back .
And this night photo what you have here ... I like it ... this lights are cool there :)
and Hi from Estonia :)
Dear @tobixen,
Your story attracted our attention and we would like to introduce our tag #archisteem that could provide you with some extra support. For your information, we are currently running the project – 1001 Places to Remember. Your content is a fit for the project and could be qualified for the 10 Steem reward biweekly contest.
It would be great if we can have this story of yours included in the project. If you agree, please reply to us.
Do drop by and take a look :) Hope to see you around soon.
Stay tuned and Steem on!
@archisteem and team
I skipped the archisteem tag this time. This walkwithme post is not so much about "a place to remember", it's more about "a weather to remember" or "a time to remember" - at least for me :-) I don't mind that the story is included in the project anyway.
I also have another walkwithme post from my Sunday walk, it's also without the #archisteem tag. The walk is not so much about describing one place, it's more about describing our walk. There are two "themes" in that post, one is that we're living in a place with many high-rise apartment buildings (and that some of those are landmarks, visible from nearly anywhere), that theme may possibly fit with archisteem ... the other is that it's possible to have some fun with the kids even when the premise is just "we can't sit indoors all this Sunday, we need to go for a walk if nothing else".
Hey @tobixen, thanks for being such considerate about matching the theme. In our perspective, we do consider this as part of a place's memory for a non-Norway reader and how you write it is a very personal experience on how you enjoy the moment (the weather and the time). For us, that is the essence of a story, whereby you can bring the readers into your world. On the other hand, describing the place with too much emphasize on the background of the building or landmark would defeat the purpose of highlighting the personal memory of the authors.
Here is how we define "Place" in this project - being in a confined or not confined space (regardless of the size and area) where you could experience through your six senses (including emotion). So, your #walkwithme series is something that we appreciate and hope to include in the project.
Cheers and Steem on!
@archisteem and team
Nice view. The beauty of nature is so beautiful. Such kind of really makes the mind cool.