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.

Strong winds might have blown sea cucumbers (Cucumaria miniata) up on to the beach, exposing them to the cold at low tide.

Flocks of whooper swans have been grazing in a field in southwestern Finland, although these swans don't typically return to Finland until March or April, according to Finland’s environment administration.

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.

Snowplows? The railroad? “Trumpets in the sky? The noise has been heard on and off for years, but no one appears to have a solid explanation.

Some welcome new visitors have recently appeared in a southeastern Alberta park — otters.

The river is so rough in the Upper Kuskokwim area that it is impassable to vehicle and snow machine traffic. Big boulders of snow-covered ice are scattered across the river caused by high water and a late freeze up.

A snowmachiner was killed Monday afternoon in an avalanche on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska State Troopers reported late Monday night.

Badgers usually remain fast asleep until the end of February but, Siberia's mild winter caused a shorter hibernation period. On Monday, the temperature rose to 2 degrees Celsius. It was minus 24 C on the same day last year.

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.

At least 41 people have been killed and 84 injured after two avalanches hit the mountainside near Turkey's eastern border with Iran in 24 hours, the Turkish Natural Disaster and Crisis Directorate (AFAD) said Thursday.

No one was hurt when a slab avalanche buried one child and partially buried two others.

A tear was discovered in one of Arctic Fish’s open-sea fish farms in Dýrafjörður in the Westfjords. A notice on the company’s website says the tear was discovered during routine inspection and is located at a depth of about 20 metres (65 feet).

Climate change has allowed spotted seals to find new hunting grounds, but the marine mammals ultimately depend on sea ice to survive.

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.