Always a big issue, the return of the sun at  69˚40’N 18˚56’E yesterday was celebrated by all international staff with a cacophonia of Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, and English. Berliner Bollen were served and pictures taken of the sun which still hid itself behind the mist. For this post, I had to chose a picture of 2008 which had been taken from the institute’s terrace on the same occasion.

Wintertime is not easy here, not even for the locals. To get used to the two-month darkness takes a long time. The week started with raining cats and dogs and melting away all of the little snow which had been accumulated since November last year. Temperatures at 4 or even 6 centigrades above zero, 300 miles north to the Arctic Circle. It might be a sign of rapid global warming.