Clocks changed on summertime

We changed time on summer time (one hour forward), but otherwise it's very much like winter. And the best time of winter: Light winter! This was officially the last weekend with a real dark time at nights, but actually I couldn't really say if it got totally dark - for me it looked like that even middle of the night there were some blue light left.

This was a beautiful weekend with clear sky and very little wind. That is how a winter is on it's best. Then it's almost a sin to spend a day inside!

Trash people

HA Schult said that he wants to increase peoples consciousness about how much we actually produce all kind of crap. For that he has made a total army of trash people, in human size made of rubbish. The last stop of his artwork was in Adventdalen where 300 Arctic people, as he was calling them, were standing - or laying after the first night with strong wind.

I'm not having anything against to have some trash standing out in the valley, as long as they managed to pick up the pieces of broken people from the snow which was blown over them. But I'm little bit sceptical how much those standing men increased awareness of littering within local people. I think it would have been working better if all the army would have been standing middle of the town. Now I was feeling that those trash people were hidden in the valley as we're hiding our rubbish out of sight.

Towards the midnight sun

In the vernal equinox, this year at the 21st of March, we were in principle having the same length of day over all the earth. Now we're going fast towards the time of the midnight sun. After the 2nd of April we're not having anymore dark time at nights and from the 19th of April we're enjoying the midnight sun day around. That is lasting all the way until the 22nd of August and first time there will be dark at night time in the 11th of September.

Seriously, is somebody thinking that it has to be miserably to be living in Longyearbyen with it's long dark time? I'm not agreeing that! Actually we're living in the land of the midnight sun, where that almost half a years light time is compensating better than well three months total darkness. I think we're having light enough in years time - then it's just a different issue to be talking if we have warm enough...

Super moon

In the 19th of March we were supposed to be having the "Super moon" - the biggest full moon in almost 20 years. Then the moon was closest to earth and that made it look bigger than normally.

Here in Svalbard we couldn't much enjoy any kind of full moon. It was cloudy most of the time and the moon show it's face just quickly and hid himself again behind the clouds.

Winter lightning

I quite like storms. Then it's nice to be inside, feel the house shaking and look how the windows are getting covered by snow. When we got that "four tails storm", I just needed to stay awake and see the storm. In the same night we got a power cut, and all the town got dark. It was somehow cool :) And then we saw it: Blue sharp light lightened the living room.
- What was that?!!!?
- It was a lightning.
- But we don't have lightning in Svalbard!

The conversation was as absurd as our conversation when we got awaken when our house was shaken:
- What is this?!!!?
- It's an earthquake.
- But we don't have this kind of earthquakes in Svalbard!
That was in 2008 when we woke suddenly up for 5,9 (written in many newspapers 6,2) Richters earthquake which had an epicentre in Storfjorden 140 km away from Longyearbyen.

But there were lightning - even couple of times in that night - even though I have always said it was totally idiotic to make a scene of a dramatic thunderstorm in the movie "When the light comes" (Når lyset kommer) which is telling a story in Svalbard.

I didn't knew that it could be possible to get lightning in the Arctic areas - and even middle of the winter! I'm not still sure if I should believe that I really saw lightning or should I prefer believe I saw a landing attempt of humanoids.

Four tails storm

A copy of weather forecast
from met.no

The weather report was forecasting a "four tails storm" (four tails in the wind arrow). And that we got over night time. At the airport it was measured 23,4 metres per second for windspeed and the strongest gusts was 39,6 m/s. On that night there came more precipitation than it's usually coming in all March all together.

Next morning all the town was coated with a layer of beautiful snow. That was like reconciliation after storm :)

Did the town woke up?

We got from Philips a wake-up light (model HF3470) for to see, if it would make it easier to wake up in the mornings during the polar night. Now the dark time is over and we're going fast towards to the time of midnight sun.

When I got the light, I was hoping that it would help me to keep some kind of day rhythm over the dark period. As an addition for wake-up light I was using in the mornings a energy light. For me it's almost impossible to keep track of day and night when there is a dark time but also when we're having the midnight sun. I wasn't able to hold the reasonable day rhythm even in this winter...

It was cosy to wake up room which was lightened, but I wasn't feeling anyhow remarkable refreshed. Mornings are just difficult... At first I was using it with it's full power, but after a while I was only using light level 1, which lightened room up but didn't wake me up any earlier. I prefer slept so long as possible and woke up with alarm sound, not for light. I tried to use radio for to wake up but that wasn't working at all. I'm often listening radio programs from my iPod before I fall asleep and so I wasn't reacting for sounds from the radio. For me radio is more for to fall asleep... I was using the beeb as wake up call because fluting sounds of singing birds in an early morning isn't anyhow refreshing - instead it's irritates enormously.

When we got day light back, I stop using wake-up light but turned it off and used only the alarm function. Light was used as a night light, not for waking up. The yellowish tone of light was somehow unnatural and I was prefer waking up for light we got through the curtains.

For me the biggest trouble with the light was the control system. It's almost impossible to use buttons without seeing them. That means they are unusable if I wasn't wearing glasses on but also in darkness. They are logical enough but really difficult to use them just by feeling them.

One thing I was missing was a function for to set some preset profiles. In the evening I would have liked to listen some radio with low light and fall asleep with them on. But that wasn't possible, because you couldn't time the light or radio off for example after an hour or so. If that would have been possible, in the morning it's needed anyhow stronger light and louder wake up call. For that there would have been need for two profiles, one for evening and one for morning.

We're losing once in a while electricity in the town and then the wake-up light looses it's time and everything resets. That means that you can't trust it as an only alarm but you need to have always a back-up. It should have a back-up battery for to keep time even through a longer period of lack of electricity.

Now, when we're having again natural light, I'll be using the alarm function with light turned totally off. But I guess when we start with a new dark season in next autumn I'll have a new try with the light.

Early morning tour

Today I went quite early out with my dog. It was just around 5am when we took our way towards the fjord. On that point of time it was already getting pretty light! Cool! Picture is taken around 5:30am.

Snowstorm

Sometimes it's just cosy with a little snowstorm :)

Solfestuka - The Sun Festival Week

Finally sunbeams are also reaching Longyearbyen. We're celebrating the sun coming back at the 8th of April when it's possible to see it first time from the stairs of the old hospital. And we're not only celebrating then - there is a full week with different happenings.

Actually we didn't see the sun when it was supposed to show up over Lars Hiertafjellet. Instead it was snowing and blowing. We haven't been lucky with the sun last years - last time there was a sunny day in that big celebration in 2005. But we celebrate anyhow, even though the only sun we see is the happy sun in the drawing of 8-years old Sigri Steen. She made this years official logo for Solfestuka.

Weekend with BRRRM!

We used last weekend with scootering around. Not any real sunny days, but nice enough for having some scooter trips.

Lot of people beside Tunabreen in Templefjorden.

Scooters on the way in Brattlidalen.

In Brattlidalen.

The frozen waterfall, Eskerfossen.

Fantastic blue colour behind Eskerfrossen.

The memorial for the Operafjell Accident, where 141 people died in 1996. An airplane crashed with a mountain and everybody in the aircraft lost their lives.

Limited view

We already had a kind of limited view from the kitchen window, but after the last snowstorm is view about totally gone. So, now we're having sunlight in day times, but it just can't give light for our flowers. Anyhow, still thinking that it just looks cosy with that snow :)