Seasons

Despite being home to “the land of the midnight sun,” most people think of winter when they hear of Sweden. Because of the warm Gulf Stream, the climate here can be much milder than you might expect. Spring, summer, fall and winter each have their own unique personalities. Anyone swimming in the late-night summer sunshine or picking mushrooms well into autumn will gladly tell you this.

The seasons in Sweden: spring runs from April to May, summer from June to August, fall from September to October and winter from November to March.

In a land as varied as Sweden, these seasons can be quite different depending on
where you live. For simplicity’s sake, the country can be divided into three major regions: Götaland in the south, Svealand in the middle and Norrland in the north.

Götaland
In Götaland, where you’ll find the cities Göteborg and Malmö, winters are shorter and milder, while daytime summer temperatures normally range from 15 to 25 degrees. The air is relatively humid here, making warm days feel warmer, and cold days colder. However, even in winter months, snow is rare near any southern coast. Spring and autumn can be unpredictable, mainly in terms of rainfall, but temperatures are usually higher than in much of the rest of the country.

Svealand
Stretching from Stockholm in the east to southern Norway in the west, Svealand has a climate that is normally a few degrees cooler than that of Götaland. Average temperatures are just below zero in January, and snowfall is more common — especially in the northwest, where a number of popular ski resorts are located. In the summertime, days are longer than in the south. You’re likely to see Swedes in t-shirts starting as early as the end of April, and people picking chanterelles in the forest well into October.

Norrland
Although relatively few people live here, this is the climate many people falsely associate with all of Sweden. Winters here are long, cold and dry, with sub-zero temperatures lasting several months. There is also much more snow here, making the winter months often seem much lighter than you'd expect with so little daylight, if any. Summers may be short, but temperatures are often a comfortable 15 degrees, and sometimes warmer, with occasional peaks of up to 30 degrees. For much of late June and early July, the sun never sets below the horizon.

As the saying goes here, “there’s no bad weather, only bad clothing.” Although it has a much nicer ring to it in Swedish, this phrase captures the Swedish mentality even in translation.

Read more about Sweden's seasons at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI)