 Kiruna is known as The Mining City and The Space City, but there is also The Winter City.
Around the middle of October, the first snow falls and accumulates to stay until about the middle of May, longer in the mountains. There, the snow cover persists for another month and Riksgr?nsen can offer a unique downhill skiing experience in the glow of the midnight sun all the way through to Midsummer.
The midnight sun is a world famous phenomenon and begins at the end of May, when the sun rises to then play above the horizon for about 50 days. During the winter one experiences the opposite with the midwinter darkness ? when the sun no longer finds its way above the horizon for about a month, from the beginning of December until the beginning of January. Although, it is not as pitch dark as you might think, thanks to the massive amounts of snow that reflect every source of light. Actually, during seven months of the year, Kiruna has more hours of sunlight than, for example, Stockholm.
Despite its northerly location, winter in Kiruna is not particularly cold. Central Kiruna rarely experiences winter temperatures lower than 20 degrees below zero centigrade. The dry mountain air makes even freezing temperatures feel rather comfortable. But there are great local variations. Jukkasj?rvi, located about 20 kilometers from Kiruna, is situated in a river valley causing winter temperatures to drop 10-15 degrees below those of central Kiruna. Another example of variation is Abisko, 100 kilometers northwest of Kiruna and receiving the least amount of precipitation in all of Sweden. It?s opposite that receives the greatest amount of precipitation, only 30 kilometers to the north of Abisko, is Riksgr?nsen?
The municipality of Kiruna is a realm of contrasts, even when it comes to its climate.
Here you can see how the sunlight and darkness vary during the year in Kiruna:
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