In the Swedish internet newspaper Jnytt.se (J is for Jonkoping the city where I was born some 36 years ago) is an article on the Ice storm of 1929. On January 15 after several days of a cold northern wind, Jonkoping is situated on the south shores of Lake Vettern. Lake Vettern is ca 150 km long and when the cold winter wind comes from the north over the lake it becomes really cold. At the night towards the 15th the wind was pushing to a storm from the north over the cold waters, about to freeze, at -10 degrees Celsius (ca 14 degrees Fahrenheit), creating an extreme cold where 16 trains were frozen to the railway tracks and fantastic ice formations were created, the article contains three great pictures. In the first a sign spells Jönköping city to the right and to the left a formation called the statue of liberty (though I believe it looks more like a Nazgûl in Peter Jacksons Lord of the rings), in the second some sees a dog and on the third are telephone wires that has fallen down due to the storm.
The storm itself lasted until January the 17th and on the 21st the railway traffic was running in a normal order. As it’s not quite sure who owns the right to pictures you’ll have to click this link to see them.
Magnus Reuterdahl
