”Wädret wildt från Norden ryter”

Tankar om vintervädret i svensk 1700-talspress

Abstract

The article shows how the weather, and winter weather in particular, was discussed in the Swedish press in the late 18th century. Swedes were of course well acquainted with winter, the season that distinguished the country's weather from the rest of Europe and which embodied a kind of Nordic imaginary. An interesting observation, however, is that despite its familiarity, winter weather was now perceived as something that needed to be explained in a new way. Misconceptions circulated, such as that the Swedish winter lasted nine months. The experience of winter, with its cold temperatures, snow and ice, and the knowledge of the season were not quite in sync. The article discusses how scientists of the time, such as astronomers Anders Celsius and Pehr Wargentin, came up with modern theories about Swedish weather and climate that were only possible with newly invented measuring instruments such as thermometers and barometers. Some of Stockholm's newspapers were early to publish these modern meteorological observations. Weather reporting in the 18th-century Swedish press shows a period of transition, in which the weather came to play the role of a kind of transitional object in public discourse from an older view of nature to a more modern one.