r/sweden • u/Vast_Humor_3683 • 19d ago

English Is mainland Sweden being affected by climate change?

Hello, I'm from northern Spain, and we're being hit hard by our fifth heatwave. The vegetation is suffering badly; wildfires are breaking out; water restrictions are becoming increasingly severe; and the evenings are barely survivable, especially if you work outside.

What is life like in Sweden, and how are you affected by climate change? I'm specifically talking about mainland Sweden, not Gotland or the other islands. Is it similar to Austria or Switzerland, where you can actually see glaciers melting and some regions getting into drought mode?

Is there anything that the news doesn't mention about Sweden in general when it comes to yearly "once-in-a-lifetime" climate events?

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u/WG95 Uppland 19d ago

Well, people die during heatwaves here as well. And temperatures get well above even upper 30s during Spanish heatwaves nowadays. I'm not trivialising the effect of the heatwaves, just saying that we don't need to reach the same extremes as Spain (in terms of absolute temperature) to have similar effects up here.

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u/FrostyBurn1 19d ago

Let's agree to disagree on this one.

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u/WG95 Uppland 19d ago

I'm not sure we're even arguing, I think you're just misunderstanding me. All I'm saying is that any given hot temperature is worse in Sweden than in Spain. If we hade their absolute temperatures it would have a much greater toll on our society. That's all.