Photo: Himmeltindan rises over Uttakleiv in April twilight, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. April 10, 2019. 21:57

Last year on this evening, April 10th, I headed up Veggen with a forecast of clear sky to try and catch my last northern lights of the season, which I did – Friday Photo 327. This year has been a completely different story. I don’t think I’ve been camping at all – although Covid-19 is a little responsible for that, but the weather has been equally uncooperative. I can barely remember any calm days, though there were a few luckily, but camping weather there hasn’t been much of at all. The wind seems to have never stopped blowing this year.

Even this past Wednesday a quick to strong storm passed Lofoten, taking several barn roofs with it. But outside of the bigger storms this winter, was just a constant, never ending wind. Stronger wind than I’d like to test my tent against on a mountain top – and I’ve already broken a tent here over Easter 2017.

And so I spend most my days staring out the window and watching the rain, or today, snow clouds sweep over Himmeltind which sits across the sea from my village. One minute I can see the mountain, the next its gone. And repeat…

The northern lights will leave Lofoten’s sky next week. And soon after that the winter storms hopefully! I’ve had enough for this year – words I write as my house is whistling and shaking in the wind on this Friday afternoon as the next snow flurry arrives.

But despite the weather, these ever brightening twilight nights of the next weeks are a sight that summer is on its way. Even now in mid April the horizon glows at night. Soon the sun will hang over the sea in the north at midnight, and shine over Lofoten 24 hours a day. I can’t wait!

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
18mm
ISO 100
f 6.3
8 seconds
WB Daylight

Photo: Lenticular cloud over Himmeltindan at twilight, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. April 20, 2019. 22:50

Spring has arrived in the last week here on Lofoten – even up to 15˚ C in the last few days! That might not sound like much to anyone down south, but for me, it’s the warmest temperature I’ve had since September! I can even go on my evening jogs in shorts and a t-shirt at the moment. How long it will last, nobody knows. But at least it is a taste of summer for us! And a nice July day might not be much warmer than 15˚ C here anyhow.

Spring is a tricky time of year here on Lofoten. The light of summer but often the cold of winter. Though in sun and warmth and sun of the last week I can see the fields outside my house growing greener by the day. Which is quite a difference to last year when there was much more snow, especially on the mountains. It will probably snow again, perhaps several times, but at least the thermometer seems to be moving north.

Usually spring is a slightly unproductive photographic time for me. As I don’t really like the brown landscapes all that much. But this year, I will probably make much more effort to go out and photograph and to illustrate what spring is, as hopefully later in the year I’ll produce the final missing sections of my ’Seasons on Lofoten’ ebook guides – spring and autumn. Which I will likely combine together into one guide, as they are otherwise relatively short periods on their own. First though, I’m putting in long hours for the long overdue 2nd edition of Seasons on Lofoten – Summer, which should be out next week hopefully!

I was hoping to be lazy on this rainy evening. The sunset was interesting, but not enough to get me out of the house. Finally though, a little while later all the low clouds passed and I was this glowing lenticular cloud floating over Himmeltindan. It is not often we get lenticular clouds here, so I quickly grabbed my camera and rain out into the bog of my neighbors field. It was windy – the whole reason the cloud was there – but warm. So between gusts, I managed a few images in the quickly fading twilight.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
38mm
ISO 100
f 7.1
5 seconds
WB Daylight

Photo: Camping on the summit of Veggen under April northern lights, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. April 11, 2019. 00:04

With the 2018/2019 coming to a close in the next days, the sky has been putting on a pretty good show over the past week. Last Friday I camped out at Kvalvika and had the whole beach for myself as the sky exploded with color, and the cool rocket launch from Andøya, which was a bit eerie to see at first!. And a few other nice nights during the week until I was free from class again and could camp Wednesday night – with a forecast for clear sky.

I initially thought about going up Reinebringen, but having been sent a photo of the route by a friend, it looked a bit too avalachy and dangerous just for some photos. So I headed up Veggen instead – and while the route itself was safe, I only brought micro spikes instead of proper crampons, which wasn’t the best choice for the hard, icy snow. Making the descent a little scarier than I would have liked!

Darkness comes late at this time of year, but there is still enough of it for the aurora to dance overhead. However, the time from sunset until ‘night,’ if we can call it that, can be a little bit of a wait – especially while camping in the cold! So it’s always a choice of how warm and cozy do you let yourself get in the sleeping bag, which then makes you a little lazy and hesitant to get out once you see a bit of green appear in the sky.

This night, I was a little lazy. I missed an early outburst that only lasted a couple minutes – I was watching the web cams from inside my sleeping bag – that is pretty lazy! But eventually I emerged into the cold and there was still some aurora to be seen. However, a wave of clouds was slowly moving in as well, so after an hour or so when the aurora peaked again, it was sufficiently cloudy to block the show. And thus around 01:00 I went back to the tent.

So defiantly not the best image ever, but perhaps my last of this season. And now, 4 months of (hopefully) sun in the north. After last year, we deserve a good summer this year!