Sweden Natural Environment

Sweden is situated in Scandinavia in northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, with Finland to northeast and east across the Gulf of Bothnia, Denmark to the south across the Gulf of Kattegat and Skagerrak, and Norway to the west.  The north of the country lies within the Artic Circle.  It has an area of 449,964 sq. km.

The terrain is generally flat or rolling.  At the southern end of the country are fertile plains extending from Denmark; the rest of the southern region has low elevation and is fragmented by fields, hills and lakes.  Further north is a region with rolling hills, river valleys and forests.  The rest of the northern region are forested highlands with soils that are not as fertile.

Along the border between Sweden and Norway is the Kjolen mountain range, with peaks rising to over 2,000 meters.  These mountains are the water source for Sweden’s largest rivers.  South of the mountains lies the lake district where the Vanern, the largest lake in western Europe, is situated.  The mountains and parts of northern Sweden are covered by snow for much of the year.

The country’s landscape has been shaped by the ice age; the most recent one ended only about 10,000 years ago.  Generally, movements of the glaciers have polished the terrain into rounded shapes, turned hollows into valleys and lakes and produced finely ground material which has become fertile clay on the plains.

Much of the land is covered by coniferous forests, but in the south one can find deciduous forests with beech, linden, ash maple and oak being the main species grown.

The capital is Stockholm with a population of about 795,000 people.

Sweden’s climate in the north is sub-artic as it lies within the Artic Circle.  It also has long summer days with 24-hour sunlights north of the Artic Circle and long winter nights.  Winters are long and cold.  Continental influences also contribute to the cold weather.  However, because of the long summer days which heats up the region, the difference in temperature in summer between the north and the south is not great.

The climate in the south is temperate with cold cloudy winters and cool and partly cloudy summers.  The south benefits from the influence of the Atlantic with its relatively warm Gulf Stream.  Stockholm, which is on the southeast coast, has an average coldest temperature in winter of about -3 degrees celsius, and a warmest temperature of about 18 degrees in July.

In the west, Atlantic low pressure systems often give rise to warm southwesterly winds and rains; as a result, day and night time temperature differences are not great.

In the east, high pressure systems create dry and sunny weather, with hot spells in the summer and cold spells in the winter.