Blizzard and awful road conditions forecast for Southern Finland

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The current weather forecast is a wintry one, predicting heavy snowfall for Southern Finland for Tuesday evening. According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute, up to 20 centimetres of snow is expected in a 24-hour period.
      In the coastal regions the precipitation may come down as rain or sleet in the afternoon and early evening, but by nightfall at the very latest snow will have replaced the rain.
      The snow cover is likely to remain on the ground at least for a couple of days, for temperatures below freezing are predicted into the middle of the week.
     
In traffic, changing to winter tyres would not go amiss at this point, as the snowfall combined with strong winds will make road conditions treacherous. Many people who had not changed their tyres were desperately trying to remedy the failure on Monday.
      "Ten centimetres of snow is enough to make road conditions bad. Now we're talking about 20 centimetres of snow in a 24-hour-period, and the chances are that driving conditions will become downright foul in many of the southern provinces", describes meteorologist-on-duty Ari-Juhani Punkka from the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
     
The wind and the snowfall caused problems in traffic in Southern Finland already on Monday. Many of the express ferry departures between Helsinki and the Estonian capital Tallinn had to be cancelled once again because of the rough sea.
      Heavy snowfall complicated things for road-users for example in the southern parts of the province of Häme. In Kuusankoski, at the intersection of Highways 6 and 12, a tanker truck carrying hydrochloric acid swerved off the road and tipped on its side.
      While the driver sustained minor injuries, the tank remained intact.
      Drivers are advised to use extreme caution tonight and tomorrow morning, but even in a country where winter is a given, it is more than likely that fender-benders will be a commonplace, and insurance companies are already preparing for a spate of claims. It is not just the roads, either: many pavements are slick after recent rain, and black ice can cause people to tumble over and break bones.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Weather in Southern Finland unusually warm for September (25.9.2006)
  Icy roads bring flood of fracture patients to Helsinki hospitals (19.11.2004)

Links:
  Finnish Meteorological Institute

Helsingin Sanomat