Large parts of Sweden have seen less than five hours of sunlight so far in December, according to preliminary SMHI figures. Stockholm and several other places have it particularly dark with under one hour of sunshine. Meteorologist Linus Falk describes it as generally low figures due to low pressure and clouds.
Have you also felt it dark lately? Preliminary figures from SMHI show that the sun has shone for less than five hours in large parts of Sweden during the first eleven days of December 2025. Residents in Visby and Borlänge have had to make do with a single hour of sunshine, while in Stockholm it hasn't even reached one hour.
"It's not even an hour in Stockholm," says meteorologist Linus Falk.
Five places top the darkness league, aside from the polar night farthest north: Stockholm, Umeå, Luleå, Norrköping, and Svenska Högarna have all recorded less than one hour of sun. The reason is low-pressure dominated weather with lots of clouds.
"It has been low-pressure dominated and very cloudy. If this had been in summer, the clouds could have been burned away by the sun standing high in the sky, but now in winter the sun is lower and doesn't have the same power," explains Falk.
Last year, Stockholm had 33 sunshine hours for the whole of December, Norrköping 29, and Svenska Högarna 34. Umeå got 38 hours, while Luleå had only two. This year, it has been sunniest in Karlskrona with eleven hours, followed by Hoburg on Gotland with ten hours.
The forecast doesn't look brighter immediately. "Generally, it's continued very low pressure coming in from the west. But it looks like there will be individual places and individual days that can get sun," says Falk. For example, the sun may appear on parts of the west coast Saturday afternoon.
These figures are preliminary and may be adjusted.
