The short spring
To many people around the world, spring means that you can take a walk in the woods and enjoy the blooming trees and everything becoming light green and lush. In Greenland, spring is a little different.
In most of Greenland, spring comes in May. Then it’s gone again. Sometimes you just have to blink your eyes, and you will have missed the spring in Greenland because the transition from winter to summer is very short.
To us, spring is something different from most other countries. The fact that the flowers will start blooming is also a sign of spring in Greenland, but our most obvious sign of spring is the melting of the snow and the enormous amounts of water that come with this.
Everyone knows that there is plenty of winter snow in Greenland, and when the sun’s rays begin to warm up enough, the snow naturally turns into water. It’s amazing to see what water can do to snow. It creates the most amazing and wonderful formations. The water melts and creates bridges of snow under hills of snow; it ripples down the hills and, in all small crevices, water streams run and sparkle wonderfully in the rays of the sun.
Spring in Greenlandic Towns
In our towns, spring causes huge meltwater puddles or even lakes, especially in towns with large meadows and flat areas. In the center of Nuuk (right in front of our office), some deep ditches quickly fill up with meltwater. Outside, the frozen water drains melt slower than the surface ice, so the lower ice creates congestion, and the water cannot run away. Although we find it annoying with all the puddles, it is always great to see the children’s joy when they jump around in the puddles, laughing and splashing water all over the place
Another beautiful thing about late winter and spring is the icicles. The icicles can become several meters long when they hang from the rooftops, and they twinkle beautifully when the sun shines right at them.
In South Greenland, but also in other towns in Central and East Greenland and Qeqertarsuaq, garden owners start to prepare their gardens so that they can enjoy flowers and home-grown vegetables later in the year.
There are not many tourists in Greenland in the spring, which is a bit of a shame because it can be a great time to go there. We highly recommend it!
