Sweden's most famous ski race gets underway next week.This weekend's wind and rain has led to puddles on the 90 kilometre-long course, and volunteers are working feverishly before thousands of skiers descend on the course.

The predicted severe winds hit the country this morning, causing travel disruptions, property damage and disruptions to capital area services. Parts of the south coast are still without power and some without hot water.

Widerøe has had several flight cancellations this morning. This is because the air pressure in parts of Northern Norway are too low for planes to take off. In modern times, Widerøe has never had to ground planes due to low pressure.

In Karasjok and Kautokeino, there has been greater snowfall than usual on winter pastures. The difficulty in digging down to pasture is effecting reindeer in large parts of Troms and Finnmark.

The extreme weather "Elsa" left its mark along the Norwegian coast on Monday night until Tuesday. In many places the water has gone far above the ordinary flood level and many cellars have been filled with water.

The raspberries believes spring has begun now. They have started to bloom and have no idea that the cold temperatures may come in an instant.

The earliest I have ever seen the cormorant snake has been around the first week of April. I could never imagine meeting snakes in January.

It is so much snow, more than usual this time of the year.

A couple of North Shore ski hills and Buntzen Lake in Anmore were closed Friday because of heavy rainfall, as Metro Vancouver prepared for another deluge Friday night.

The island of Vega in Helgeland, which has a measurement station from 1999, has not had as much rain in 15 years. They had 27 rainy days in January.

It’s been a relentlessly rainy January, with no sign of slowing down. And all the precipitation has put Portland-area roads at risk of being buried by landslides.

According to Simo Laine, head horticulturalist at botanical garden in Turku, southwest Finland, it could well be the first time that the blooms have made an appearance in the country as early as January.

SKAMOKAWA — The highway between Naselle and Longview will remain closed “for an indeterminate amount of time” following a large landslide Jan. 23, state highway officials said Jan. 28.

There is almost 50 degrees in temperature difference between Kautokeino in Finnmark and Tafjord in Møre og Romsdal. And in Stryn they released the cows this weekend!

As of Sunday nearly 60 inches of snow fell in Haines in the last 8 days. That total was higher in some parts of town and more snow is in the forecast.

The birds are singing, the flowers are germinating and the snow is not visible. January is record-breaking in several places in the country and Oslo sets a new snow-free record.

Several rainfall records in Nordland have already been struck. Now a warning has been sent out for even more of the same. - We are in the top tier of what we have measured by rainfall over the last 100 years, says meteorologist Bente Wahl.

Icy conditions in the mountains have caused wild reindeer to descend towards the hut areas to find food. In several places ski areas are now closed to prevent the reindeer from being disturbed.

From April to November, most dog owners are used to checking their dogs for small crawling ticks that have become stuck in the fur of their pets.