Jokkmokk (; smj, Jåhkåmåhkke or ; se, Dálvvadis; fi, Jokimukka) is a

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...

and the seat of Jokkmokk Municipality in

Norrbotten County Norrbotten County ( sv, Norrbottens län; se, Norrbottena leatna, fi, Norrbottenin lääni) 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 ...

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

of Lapland,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

, with 2,786 inhabitants in 2010. The Lule Sami name of the place (composed of the individual words and ) means "River's Curve," due to the meandering river that runs through it. As in other towns in Lapland, the

Swedish language Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in Sweden and in parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, the fourth most spoken Germanic language and the first among any other of its type in the Nordic cou ...

is dominant at an official level in Jokkmokk in modern times. The settlement is just north of the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at ...

. Talvatissjön is located at the southern part of Jokkmokk. Jokkmokk is an important locality for Sámi people and the location of several institutions related to them, including an education centre, the Ájtte museum, and an office of the

Sámi Parliament of Sweden The Sámi Parliament of Sweden ( sv, Sametinget, se, Sámediggi, smj, Sámedigge, sma, Saemiedigkie) is the representative body for people of Sámi heritage in Sweden based in Kiruna. It acts as an institution of cultural autonomy for the indige ...

. Jokkmokk was a transit center for

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 ...

refugees from Norway during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, in addition to the centre in Kjesäter. Jokkmokk Market has been taking place since 1605. On the first Thursday in February every year, thousands of people gather in the town for concerts, exhibitions and trade in one of the most important social events for the Sámi people in

Sápmi (, smj, Sábme / Sámeednam, sma, Saepmie, sju, Sábmie, , , sjd, Са̄мь е̄ммьне, Saam' jiemm'n'e) is the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people. Sápmi is in Northern and Eastern Europe and includes the ...

. Temperatures during the festival can drop as low as .

Climate

Influenced by its inland and northerly position, Jokkmokk's variety of a

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a 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 an ocean, g ...

( Dfc) is very cold by Swedish standards.

Summer Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...

s are normally relatively mild, with

midnight sun The midnight sun 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 the midnight sun is seen in the Arctic, ...

, and the dark winters are long and cold, although

polar night The polar night is a phenomenon where the nighttime lasts for more than 24 hours that occurs in the northernmost and southernmost regions of Earth. This occurs only inside the polar circles. The opposite phenomenon, the polar day, or midni ...

is not quite observed with a sun angle of 0.4° at the winter solstice. Combining an elevation of with being at the foot of the

Scandinavian Mountains The Scandinavian Mountains or the Scandes is a mountain range that runs through the Scandinavian Peninsula. The western sides of the mountains drop precipitously into the North Sea and Norwegian Sea, forming the fjords of Norway, whereas to th ...

, Jokkmokk is both cooled down during the day and experiences

temperature inversion In meteorology, an inversion is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. It almost always refers to an inversion of the air temperature lapse rate, in which case it is called a temperature inversion. Nor ...

during night. This combination makes it the coldest municipal seat in Sweden in terms of winter temperatures, although some rural localities in Lapland are even colder.

References

External links

Tourist information in Jokkmokk

Ájtte Museum of Sami people
{{Authority control Populated places in Jokkmokk Municipality Lapland (Sweden) Municipal seats of Norrbotten County Swedish municipal seats Populated places in Arctic Sweden

Climate

See also

References

External links