Stockholm (AFP)

"Winter that never arrives": the Nordic countries have experienced outbreaks of fever and are about to end one of the hottest winter seasons ever recorded.

A few cables from the Arctic Circle, the snow shone by its absence and the mercury got carried away, causing buds and seedlings to come out prematurely. In Stockholm, the cherry trees blossomed in January, unheard of.

Sweden has had particularly high temperatures since December, six to seven degrees above seasonal norms in much of the country, according to the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI). Several regions in the south of the country have also gone directly from autumn ... to spring.

"It is the warmest winter ever recorded in the South and the Center", summarizes for AFP SMHI.

A "record" also found in neighboring countries and which traders would have done well, forced to sell ski suits and other caps well before the end of the season.

The warm air stayed over Scandinavia while the winds around the North Pole kept the cold above the Arctic Circle (which records snowfall records), making winter both warm and humid, explained Erik Engström, climatologist at SMHI, to the public channel SVT.

In the city of Uppsala, 70 kilometers north of the Swedish capital, winter has not been as hot since 1722, nearly 300 years.

On the other side of the border, in Finland, more than half of the country recorded records of softness in January. Temperatures were generally seven to eight degrees above average, according to the local weather institute.

In Norway, never had a winter been so mild since the surveys began in 1900: they exceeded seasonal norms by 4.5 degrees, according to the National Meteorological Institute.

Ditto in Denmark, the southernmost country in the region, where the winter season - which according to the local calendar ends on the last day of February - was particularly mild, with temperatures 5 degrees above normal.

"If this winter remains in the collective memory, it will be like the winter that never happened," says climatologist Mikael Scharling, of the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI).

- Greta worried -

Unusual in these winter sports-loving nations, both Oslo and Stockholm saw virtually no snow in January.

The Swedish rally, the only WRC meeting to take place in winter conditions between Sweden and Norway, has long been suspended, due to the lack of a white carpet on the roads.

Snow also ends in the Finnish capital: "We have just experienced the first period (January-February) without any measurable trace of snow in Helsinki", notes Mika Rantanen, of the Finnish Meteorological Institute, who evokes a situation "quite extraordinary ".

Face of the fight against climate change and child of the country, the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg expressed her concerns on Twitter.

The winter which is coming to an end is also one of the wettest recorded.

70% more precipitation than normal fell in Norway, according to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.

In neighboring Sweden, heavy rains in late February "destroyed" crops, according to the Federation of Farmers (LRF), joined by AFP.

"A lot of agricultural land near rivers (...) is underwater. For many farmers, the autumn sowing (...) has been destroyed," said Ulf Wallin, spokesperson for the federation. .

A situation that worries the agricultural community: "We have seen plants start to flower, it is unheard of so soon", warns Ulf Wallin, who fears damage due to the freezing of buds and sowing in the weeks come.

If the situation improves, LRF says it forecasts "normal" yields for 2020, but lower than in 2019, without giving more figures.

In Denmark, floods now threaten almost half a million buildings across the country as well as a lot of agricultural land. The damage has not been quantified exactly.

© 2020 AFP