Sortland - Flora and Fauna, Sortland Climate

Sortland - Flora & Fauna

Believe it or not, there are both flowers, grass, weeds and trees in Sortland. And on a good day you can easily spot animals that differ completely from the ordinary fish!

Flora
In Sortland and Northern Norway in general, alpine and Arctic flowers predominate. You can find flowers in all colours, and if lucky, you may discover wild orchids as well. Some of the flowers are presented on the images to the right.

In some parts of northern Nordland, Troms and Finnmark, the tree line may be as low as 200m to 300m. As a consequence, sometimes you don't have to walk very far from the sea before getting the "highland" feeling.

Fauna
It is true that we have plenty of fish. But we do have other animals as well. Such as arctic hares, wild reindeer, foxes, mouses, stoats, squirrels, lemmings and otters. Among the animals we don't have are Indian elephants, Arctic bears and Siberian Tigers. But 4 mooses camping in downtown Sortland during the autumn of 1999 is just as exotic, isn't it?!

Luckily, some would say, snakes don't live north of the Arctic circle. Unfortunately, others would say, the same Arctic circle prevent cosy animals like hedgehogs, beavers and badgers from living in Northern Norway.

Sortland - The Climate

It's not easy to describe the climate in Sortland. It's not easy even if you are lucky enough to be from Sortland. Still, Virtual Sortland will give it a try!
As a rule, seasons are devided into four parts. Each part has its own distinguishing characteristics and its very own name. E.G. winter, summer, spring and autumn -usually in this order... Usually.

In Sortland, though, the seasons don't necessarily follow this pattern. Simplyfied, you could devide a year in Sortland into two parts; Winter and, let's call it, summer.
Fortunately, or unfortunately (it depends), the Sortland year is even more complex than this.

A year in Sortland (A made up scenario):
The year starts in January with two weeks of spring followed by two months of winter, some autumn, strong winter, a bit of spring followed by what just has to be regarded as autumn again..

Then, it's wintertime again. And even another winter after four days of spring. In July, you feel rather sure that the winter is over and that what you are experiencing could be described as summer. In August, the frost is back in business again followed by a couple of days with spring and one week with an autumn that resigns the minute you get aware of it.

Full winter, some winter, full winter. At the end of October, you may experience two or three days with autumn dressed up as a summer. After this, the winter is finally here and the real spring may come to life. At last.

In other words, June, July and August could be nothing more but a hyphen between two seasons. An ordinary Sortlending can never be sure about when it starts and when it ends. As you can't trust summer, you have to take it by chance. In theory, the snow could fall down as late as July. As a result, you may experience difficulties in planning more than just the next day.