False spring, waiting for winter

Winter has yet to arrive to many parts of Sweden, several places report warm temperatures and the common snowdrops are thriving on the island of Gotland.  

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  Snowdrops on Gotland in December. Does it mean spring? Not necessarily.

• Yet, SMHI (the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) doesn’t want to proclaim spring. How can it be spring if it hasn’t even been winter? No, the idea is that it is still fall in those places in Sweden. At the end of December, in Stockholm the average temperature is on the top 15 list with balmy December months (they began jotting down temperatures in 1756), with a 24-hour average temperature of 2.5 C (36.5F).