Helsinki now snowiest place in Finland
Cold weather to continue for several days
Helsinki is currently enjoying Finland's thickest snow cover, as the capital city received forty centimetres of snow during a six-hour period on Saturday.
In comparison, the snow cover in Northern Lapland currently measures twenty centimetres in depth.
Although the entire Southern coast of Finland was covered by clouds on Saturday, the snowfall was concentrated on the Helsinki metropolitan region. The snow maps of the Finnish Meteorological Institute clearly show that in addition to Northern Finland, only Helsinki has a separate, thick snow cover.
For example in Vantaa, there is only five centimetres of snow.
Saturday's snowstorm brought out the winter's first cross-country skiers, and children who had dug out their sleds could be seen on nearly every hill. Over one hundred men were called to work by the City of Helsinki's Public Works Department to plough streets.
Main traffic thoroughfares were ploughed from the snow by Sunday morning. On a negative note, the snowfall seriously hampered tram traffic on Saturday, with trams not running normally until Sunday.
The winter weather, with temperatures clearly below freezing, should last for several more days, keeping the snow on the ground in Helsinki. According to the current forecasts, the temperature may rise above zero on Thursday, but only temporarily.
Helsingin Sanomat
