In many places in Sweden it looks like the sun is finally coming out again. And with the sun a feeling of well-being.
”We have seen that there’s a connection between our mental health and how the weather varies,” says Sofia Thorsson, associate professor in physical geography at Göteborg University. In a Swedish study from the first half of the 2000s, some 3,000 people were polled about how they felt at the moment. Their responses were compared with the meteorological data for that specific location.

”People say they feel better the higher the temperature and the sunnier it is,” says Thorsson. In the span of a few degrees below 0˚C up to +20 to 25˚C (68-77˚F), people expressed that they were happier and calmer with warmer weather. Weather also affects how we experience different locations. ”In general we believe a place is prettier, the sunnier and warmer it is. Wind is a bit special. In a city or where there’s a lot of buildings, wind is usually experienced as something negative. On the other hand, if it is a place by the water with trees and nature, wind can make that place prettier,” says Thorsson.