Arjeplog (;
Pite Sami: ) is a
locality and the seat of
Arjeplog Municipality in
Norrbotten County
Norrbotten County (, Meänkieli/, ) is the northernmost county or '' län'' of Sweden. It is also the largest county by land area, almost a quarter of Sweden's total area. It shares borders with Västerbotten County to the southwest, the Gulf ...
,
province
A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
Lapland, Sweden with 1,977 inhabitants in 2010.
It is a popular winter test site for the Asian and European car industries and featured on an episode of the British TV show ''
Top Gear''.
Arjeplog has in the past offered families 100,000
kronor, or individuals 25,000 kronor to move to the town.
History
The name, first recorded in 1636 as the name of the
Sami
Acronyms
* SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft
* Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company
* South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ne ...
village and in 1640 as the church and marketplace, is a Swedish adaptation of ''Árjepluovve''. The suffix is ''pluovve'', meaning 'wet marsh,' while the prefix contains the genitive of (''h'')''árijje'', meaning 'ridge'.
Arjeplog is known for, among other things, "the Lapland doctor" Einar Wallquist's creation, the Silver Museum, which was inaugurated in 1965. Arjeplog is a church village in the Arjeplog parish that, when the 1862 municipal reform was implemented in Lapland, formed Arjeplog Rural Municipality in 1874. The Rural Municipality was, in 1971, transformed without changes into
Arjeplog Municipality with Arjeplog as the central locality.
Climate
Arjeplog has a
subarctic climate
The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a continental climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of ...
(
Dfc) typical of northern Sweden. Its winters are somewhat moderated by the mild maritime North
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
air to the west, although they are still very cold, long and snowy. Summers are short but can occasionally be warm and they are also very bright due to Arjeplog's position close to the
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle.
The Arctic Circl ...
. Daylight is sparse in winter, but during summer
midnight sun
Midnight sun, also known as polar day, is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle, when the Sun remains visible at the local midnight. When midnight sun is see ...
is present for three weeks.
For an even longer period than that it does not get dark in Arjeplog. The presence of the midnight sun is in spite of Arjeplog being below the Arctic Circle, and is caused by the sun's trajectory not quite dropping below 0° in angle. As it is below the line Arjeplog does not experience complete lack of daylight during the winter solstice, but it is limited to less than three hours.
Arjeplog is located on the lake of
Hornavan, that freezes over every winter due to the cold temperatures, whereas the lake temperatures remain cool also in summer.
See also
*
Hornavan
*
Hornavanskolan
References
Municipal seats of Norrbotten County
Swedish municipal seats
Road test tracks
Populated lakeshore places in Sweden
Populated places in Arjeplog Municipality
Lapland (Sweden)
{{Norrbotten-geo-stub