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INSIDE SWEDEN

Inside Sweden: What might Sweden’s future weather look like?

Sweden may have avoided the heatwave that plagued much of Europe earlier this summer, but the past week certainly gave us a taste of extreme weather, including rain, wind and severe flooding, writes The Local's editor.

Inside Sweden: What might Sweden's future weather look like?
Storm Hans flooded one of Gothenburg's harbours. Photo: Björn Larsson Rosvall/TT

Some weather records had been broken even before this week’s rainfall. Delsbo/Bjuråker in Hälsingland, central Sweden, has seen 338.6 millimetres of rain so far this summer, with 84.2 millimetres falling on July 1st alone, according to Sweden’s meteorological office SMHI.

SMHI predicts that local rain records could conceivably also be broken in Hälsingland’s Kölsillre as well as Falköping-Valtorp in Västergötland and the city of Västerås before the summer is over.

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, Ullared on the west coast got the most rain: 83.6 millimetres.

At Kållered south of Gothenburg, where the E6 motorway had to shut completely after flooding, 76.1 millimetres of rain fell – two centimetres more than its previous record (although note that SMHI’s weather station at Kållered was only set up in 1994, so it doesn’t tell us much).

The downpour led to flooding in several parts of Sweden, causing rivers to burst their banks and trains to grind to a halt, including one that derailed near Hudiksvall after a railway embankment collapsed.

In Gothenburg, newspapers rejoiced in reporting that “poo water” (bajsvatten – one of Swedish newspapers’ many favourite headline words) was flowing through the Göta Älv river after the city’s sewage system couldn’t cope with the flooding.

Sweden is lucky in that extreme weather is rarely as extreme as in many other countries, but it’s on the increase here too. Global warming and climate change affect countries differently, and in Sweden extreme rainfalls are expected to increase in the future.

Sweden’s annual rainfall has already increased from 600 millimetres to 700 millimetres since 1930. By 2100, it may have increased another 20-40 percent, according to SMHI’s estimates.

It’s actually less strange than it sounds that global warming causes both heatwaves and rainfall. Warm air is able to hold more water molecules than cool air, so the warmer the atmosphere gets, the more concentrated the water vapour in the atmosphere gets, and it eventually comes down as rain.

Storm Hans, for example, is believed to have been caused by high sea surface temperatures. The warm water in areas affected by this summer’s heatwave evaporated and came down as rain in Scandinavia. It’s how the weather is supposed to work, but taken to extremes by global warming. Think of it as a wheel that’s spinning (as it’s supposed to), but faster and faster and eventually out of control.

Swedish cities are now rethinking their infrastructure to be able to cope with sudden rainfall in the future. I read an article by Swedish news agency TT this week which reported that Malmö had, among other things, lowered parts of Söderkullaparken, a park in the south of the city. The idea is that the park will then retain rain water, preventing it from flooding other parts of Malmö.

In Stockholm, similar plans are in place for Rålambshovsparken and Humlegården.

How are your countries coping with floods, heatwaves and climate change?

In other news

Sweden’s in the World Cup semi-final, heja! Here’s how to watch it in Sweden.

We compared how much things cost in Sweden at the moment compared to a year ago, and it’s grim, with the exception of energy costs which are likely to be lower this winter than last year.

Sweden’s National Institute of Economic Research believes GDP will fall 0.9 percent this year, but start climbing again next year. Brace for another probable interest rate hike next month, however.

There are arguably as many Swedish dialects as there are Swedes, but what are the general rules for how to tell where in Sweden someone comes from based off their speech? Here’s Becky’s guide to a few easy tricks. So if you’ve got that Swedish friend who constantly asks you if you can “tell that so-and-so comes from a different part of Sweden than so-and-so”, now you can tell them yes.

Spotify this week pulled out of negotiations with unions over striking a collective bargaining agreement, arguing that it can provide better perks for its employees without such a deal. If you work for Spotify and want to tell me whether or not you think that’s true – please feel free to drop me an email at [email protected] (you can be anonymous).

Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members that gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to your inbox, by going to your newsletter preferences.

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INSIDE SWEDEN

Inside Sweden: What does Sweden Democrats’ election flop mean for foreigners?

The Local's editor Emma Löfgren rounds up the biggest stories of the week in our Inside Sweden newsletter.

Inside Sweden: What does Sweden Democrats' election flop mean for foreigners?

Hej,

The far-right Sweden Democrats have had a week of reckoning after they lost votes in the EU election – the first time in the party’s history that it’s performed worse in a national or EU election than previous elections. Thus far it had always been on an upward trajectory, a trend that is now broken.

In some districts it saw voters’ support reduced by up to a third, and in Sölvesborg (the popular party leader Jimmie Åkesson’s home town) where support also fell, there was talk of organising crisis meetings.

Let’s not exaggerate what this means. The Sweden Democrats get to keep their three seats in the European Parliament, and voting patterns for the EU election are usually different from the national elections (the Greens performed almost three times better than in the last national election less than two years ago).

A major poll this week suggested that the Sweden Democrats would win 19.5 percent of the vote if an election were held today – one percentage point lower than its 2022 election result, but better than its 13 percent in the EU election.

It is still a member of Sweden’s ruling Tidö coalition and it’s hardly the only party in favour of stricter migration: the right-wing Moderates and Christian Democrats, and the centre-left Social Democrats have all had a hand in the tightening of rules that have impacted foreigners in Sweden in recent years.

But its poor performance does tell us something, which may have at least a small chance at influencing the Swedish political debate in the years ahead.

It suggests that the Sweden Democrats are less able than many thought at mobilising its potential voters. Its voters are generally sceptical of the EU and less keen to vote in the EU election, not even for the Sweden Democrats.

It suggests that Åkesson overplayed his hand when he wrote an opinion piece in the run-up to the election seeking to legitimise the concept of folkutbyte, a clear reference to the Great Replacement Theory that underpinned the deadly terror attack mounted by the Norwegian extremist Anders Breivik.

It suggests that the party played it wrong when it launched a verbal attack on TV4, refusing to apologise after the broadcaster revealed that the party operated a so-called troll factory. Perhaps the public thought showing just a little bit of contrition would have been a more appropriate reaction.

It suggests that peace, democracy, the climate and European cohesion – none of which are Sweden Democrat core issues – are important to voters.

And it rocks the boat for a party that perhaps for the first time failed at what it claims to do better than anyone else: gauging the mood of the nation.

What topics would you like The Local to cover?

It’s a challenging time for the media industry with volatile tech algorithms and advertising markets hitting even the biggest of newsrooms. That’s why I wrote a couple of weeks ago that it’s such a relief that our focus and number one resource here at The Local isn’t the tech giants, but our readers.

I’d like to take a moment to ensure that we’re continuing to meet your needs. Please fill out this survey to suggest stories we should cover in the year ahead.

In other news

The number of Swedish work permits rejected because the applicant’s salary is too low has increased by almost 2,000 percent since the country tightened the rules last year, according to new figures supplied to The Local.

There are plenty of things Sweden could do to help foreigners integrate, said The Local’s readers when we asked for their suggestions as to how the country could become more inclusive.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and India are the top investment destinations for Swedish companies, meaning that businesses are planning on increasing their investments in these markets over the next 12 months.

English speakers who don’t speak Swedish can currently only donate blood in Stockholm, but The Local has been told of plans to roll out the service to Gothenburg and Uppsala in the year ahead.

The year-on-year inflation rate fell to 3.7 percent in May, according to new figures from Statistics Sweden. This was less than expected.

Hundreds of British citizens are still battling rejected applications to stay in Sweden, nearly two and a half years after the deadline to apply for post-Brexit residency status. The Local spoke to four of them.

Sweden’s Migration Agency has sent an analysis to the EU Commission, in which it concludes that its near blanket refusal of late applications for post-Brexit residency has been ‘at the right level’ and is of ‘a high legal quality’.

The number of beaches in Sweden which are checked and graded is growing every year, making it easy to make sure that where you are swimming is clean and safe. These are the cleanest beaches in Sweden this summer.

From TV schedules to bars and cafes, here are your options for watching all matches of the Euro 2024 football tournament in Sweden.

Thanks for reading and have a good weekend!

Best wishes,

Emma

Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members which gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It’s published each Saturday and with Membership+ you can also receive it directly to your inbox.

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