5 Differences between the Winter in Calgary and Umeå


I am back peeps and this time around (from the title, you can already see), we are talking about the differences between Calgary's (Canada) winter and Umea's (Sweden) winter.

I don't want to generalize because Canada is a very big country. The time difference alone freaks me out. For example Toronto is 2 hours ahead of Calagry while Winnipeg is 1 hour ahead of Calagry. Let's just say that its the same or at least similar in relation to winter experiences. It definitely differs from province to province. Every province differs interms of their winter and the experiences also differs from place to place. Sweden on the other hand is not as big as Canada, however, the winter chills also differs, depending on the part of Sweden that you live. This is just me comparing the two places I have lived and my experiences so far.

First off, Calgary's winter is SWEET. I totally enjoyed my first winter here. Talk about the Sun...OMG, they get all the sunshine in Calgary. Back in Umeå, we had shorter daylights in Winter. The few days the sun comes out during the winter season, you will see everybody going out, smiling, taking walks and trying to savour as much sunlight as they can get. So my first difference will definitely be that, it is sunnier in Calgary than in Umeå.

This picture was taken by me sometime in February, 2017 around 4pm. Yes, that early yet so dark
I mean this was just December, 2018...Talk about good weather/sunny days😍 (Calgary, 2018)
Secondly, how about the chinook also known as 'snow eater' in Calgary? I mean, Calgarians are balling. There is this thing they call chinook (you can click the link here and here to get the gist). When there is chinook, the temperature rises and once this happens, the city gets warmer. Imagine getting as high as 5 degrees in winter (no way). I never experienced that in Umeå (I mean never ever in the winter season). When I say I have been balling💃🏾 this winter, this is what i'm talking about. So, another major difference is that there are breaks. You can dress down some days and to me that is AWESOME & SWEET

The face you give when you can dress down some days, during the winter period #Bliss😍
A very warm day sometime in January, 2019 (btw, look who is all grown😍)
Okay, let's talk about the late start of winter. So in Umeå, it starts to get cold around November down to April. Here in Calgary, the weather was still SWEET in November, of course some days were chilly and windy but like I said above, some days were really warm, you could literally just pop out in bump short (okay, maybe i exaggerated a little🙈) but seriously, the real winter started in January (in my opinion). And btw, this is just mid-March and it's already getting warm💃🏾 

This picture is one of my best pictures so far in Calgary. Talk about 4 seasons in one picture😍
Okay I know I have been hyping Calgary all the while. I mean I was living in cold for over 3 years😰. Anywayz, let's continue our comparison. So, when it comes to humidity. It is very dry in Calgary compared to Umeå. Even the water is hard. When we first landed in Summer, I used to have  very bad, dry throat and I was always looking for a chilled drink. Even till now, I still sometimes feel the dryness in my throat. I drink more water here than in Umeå for sure. I also burn more energy here than I used to in Umeå. Well, obviously like I said, it is warmer here so the dryness and all, can be due to the weather conditions which is totally fine by me anyways. I am not complaining😜 (okay, I lied, maybe I complain sometimes)


Finally, in terms of density, I would say we had more snow in Umeå compared to Calgary. The snow melts away fasts here due to everything that I have mentioned above. There is also less sunlight in Umeå, hence you can keep seeing heaps and heaps of snow till Spring starts setting in. It was a winter wonderland for me in Umeå. It was so beautiful though (beautiful to behold but cold to feel, if that makes sense)


Made of Snow. So beautiful😍 (this was in February, 2017)

All in all, I believe that my experience in Umeå, definitely set the stage for me here in Calagry. One word for my first winter experience in Calgary, would be SWEET. I mean even on days they said the snow would be very serious, I still went to work #BaddestWinterSlayer (lol). So for peeps out there who are always asking me how it feels like, well, this is me sharing my raw/first hand experience. All winters are definitely not the same, as a matter of fact, many people said the winter this year was nice. Maybe it knew, we would be here😂😝. That will be all from me today. Thank you for stopping by in my little corner. Until next time...💋


Teni showing off her #WinterSlay