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WEATHER

Wet July dampens Swedes’ summer spirit

Swedes complaining about the disappointing summer were vindicated after meterologists revealed on Friday that July indeed finished wetter – but warmer – than normal.

Wet July dampens Swedes' summer spirit
Rain in Stockholm. Photo: Marcus Ericsson/TT

After a month of rain and grey skies showing little sign of shifting, meteorologists have now confirmed what many Swedes suspected: July was in fact unusually rainy in most of the country.

“It only rained less than normal in a tiny part of the country,” Emelie Karlsson, meteorologist at Swedish weather institute SMHI, told the TT news agency on Friday.

The town of Kvarn in central Swedish region Östergötland was the worst hit, with a total rain fall of 54.7 millimetres in less than 24 hours on July 29th.

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While most parts of Europe have been sweating in a prolonged heatwave, shivering Swedes spent their month of July pulling their zippers up and woollen socks on.

This year Sweden experienced the wettest May in decades and a series of heavy downpours this summer, causing many Swedes to talk about the arrival of autumn without summer ever really being there.

But in actual fact the mercury has been close to its normal levels, said Karlsson.

“In Tornedalen [in northern Sweden] it has been between one and two degrees colder than normal. But other than that it's between one degree colder than normal and one degree warmer.”

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Karlsson would not make any firm summer sun promises for the rest of the year. However, she added that it was possible the warm weather would return in later in August and even in September.

“Don't give up hope completely. August also counts as a summer month. It could still get better,” she said.

The coldest temperature measured in July this year was 1.7 degrees at Pajala in northern Sweden on July 14th.

Forse in the Ångermanland region, slightly further south, racked up the hottest temperature at 32.8 degrees.