This book tells the story of snow and ice in nature of Northern Europe and the adaptation of Finnish people in the course of history. The text examines from deeper perspective what winter nature is, how it works and why. Various forms of ice and seasonal snow are discussed: snow, frozen ground and frost, ice sheets and glaciers, ice cover on lakes and rivers, and ice in the Baltic Sea. There is snow and ice in winter everywhere in Finland, and almost all is seasonal. The southwestern area belongs to the edge zone of the snow climate, and the northern mountain Lapland with patchy perennial ice in the form of firn and permafrost belongs to tundra climate zone. Everyday life, technology and culture have adapted to snowy and icy winters, and extensive empirical knowledge has been accumulated. Other countries covered annually by snow and ice in Europe are Estonia, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. The book also discusses the importance of snow and ice in future environmental and climate changes, the ecology of winter, and the threats of natural disasters related to snow and ice. Above all, snow and ice are presented in the annual cycle of people and nature, and as a part of the identity and culture of the Land of snow and ice.

Matti Leppäranta is an emeritus professor of geophysics at the University of Helsinki. He has decades of experience in the study of sea ice, lake ice, and snow physics. His research has advanced understanding in ice dynamics, thermodynamics, and climate interactions. He has held research and teaching positions worldwide, including at Hokkaido University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and lectured regularly at UNIS, Svalbard. A prolific author, he has published several books with Springer, such as The Drift of Sea Ice and Freezing of Lakes and the Evolution of Their Ice Cover.