Tuesday, November 07, 2006

On the North Sea

Regular readers will remember Kepiblanc, our Danish reader and commenter who has kindly translated so many Danish news stories for Gates of Vienna.

Kepiblanc photo #1The other night, during an exchange of emails, he told me that he had been out for a while helping fishermen secure their boats in the storm. When I asked him for more details, he sent me these photos (click on each one to see a larger version), as well as this explanation:

Kepiblanc photo #2It was the first storm this autumn, easterly winds with a bit of snow thrown in. Temperatures around zero Celsius. Not very strong winds but the problem was that it coincided with high tide.

I live in a very rural place on the very edge of nowhere, at the coast almost as northerly as you can go in Denmark — if you don’t count Greenland. Lived here for fourteen years since I left Copenhagen.

Kepiblanc photo #3At the time he wrote to me we were in the second day of our first real cold snap, and that night the temperature was down in the low 20s (Fahrenheit, that is; or about -7° for you Celsius people). In other words, here in Central Virginia it was colder than the most northerly part of Denmark! Kepiblanc and all the other Scandinavians, as well as our British readers, can thank us for sending the Gulf Stream their way…
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Kepiblanc photo #4The images may actually show the Skagerrak, and not the North Sea. The northernmost parts of Denmark (excluding Greenland) poke up towards the soft underbelly of Norway and Sweden, and front on the Skagerrak. Kepiblanc didn’t specify exactly where he lives.

In any case, enjoy these photos of one of the more scenic parts of Denmark.

3 comments:

Wally Ballou said...

There you go, wanting Europeans to be grateful again (note - just kidding).

All the Scandinavians who got suckered into emigrating to Minnesota and South Dakota back in teh 19th century must have got quite a shock their first winter.

Of course, as a fellow Virginian, I've always been amused at the number of folk right here in the US who think we live in the balmy deep south, sipping our mint juleps under the magnolias (magnolias we do have).

Wally Ballou said...

North Dakota? You mean there are people there? - Even after James Lileks moved out? Huh. About 600,000 brave souls - about the same as the population of the District of Columbia.

God love you folks.

And I am not looking for impressive winters, believe me. I'll stay here in mint-julep-land.

Papa Ray said...

When I was in the Army, we had a guy from North Dakota, he had a hellva time with the Nam heat and humidity, I remember him telling me about some of the winters up there.

I think I'll stay here in windy, West Texas. I think with wind chill our worse night (that I can remember) was only about -10.

A good coat, hat and gloves was all that was needed.

Papa Ray