Siestas and Forest Fire

It was hot hot HOT today.  Not what I was prepared for when I discovered that Sweden lies along the same longitudinal lines as Alaska.  Our thermometer read 34 degrees (93 F) this afternoon while the sun was hitting it directly.  That sounds like a typical Kansas City August day.  Now take away your AC, fans (yup, all of them), kiddie pool, sprinkler, and ice cubes.  That's dang hot.  There's just generally no need for these things here.  We do have the tiniest, mini ice cube tray, but Scott was pretty shocked that we had such an American item.  I hoarded all 12 of the ice cubes for our afternoon fika. 
Roanin escaped to the neighbors to use their kiddie pool for awhile.  He didn't have his swim trunks.  That's not an issue here. :) At lunch we discussed Spanish Siestas, as the girls ate in their undies.
It was the hottest day of the Summer so far, but the weather here has been intense all Summer.  It's been extremely dry, and unusually hot for long stretches.  It's only rained once in Sala, since we got here in mid-July, and that was very light and short.  The weather has affected the wild and cultivated berry crops, as well as the forest mushrooms.  Wild chanterelles, strawberries, and blueberries are generally plentiful in Sweden, but are nonexistent this year.
The dry hot weather has created the perfect conditions for a huge forest fire that's raging in our area right now. 

It started Thursday, and blew smoke our direction for 3 days straight.  Saturday evening it blocked out the sun and scented all of our clothes with an authentic campfire aroma.

 

 

The smell was so strong, I hung them out again today to try to diminish the smell.  I can't tell if it worked, or if I'm just too saturated with the smell to notice. 

Our neighbors don't seem to be concerned about our area's safety at this point, but we're keeping a close eye on the news.  (Dear Google Translate, we love you.)  It's about 10 miles away from us now, but I feel much less nervous about it when the smoke isn't blowing straight at us.  As of today, Sweden has called many emergency workers and military staff home from their vacations (Swedes call it "semester") and reached out to Italy for help with firefighting equipment.  Nine firefighters had to be rescued by helicopter this afternoon when the fire closed in around them.  We just learned that about 1,000 people are being evacuated tonight from the fire's previously rural path.  The current prediction is that it could burn for several months because it's burning underground.

There are no global warming deniers in Sweden.