Cold weather causes Russian visitors to Finland to seek visa extensions as their cars refuse to start

Temperatures down to -35°C have become almost commonplace in Eastern Finland; icy winds from Siberia look set to continue into February

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By Katja Kuokkanen
     
      It is a simple enough equation: if it does not start, then it does not start, and in these temperatures it isn't going to start anytime soon.
      That is a blunt fact that many Russian tourists have had to come to terms with this winter while visiting Finnish ski resorts in the eastern province of Kainuu.
      On the last day of their holiday, people have had to go and apply for extensions to their visas as their rides home have simply refused to cooperate.
      “Most of our Russian visitors do not have block heaters in their cars, and an attempt to cold-start the engine in temperatures below -30°C does unpleasant things", explains managing director Jarkko Tolonen of the Hyrynsalmi-based travel organiser Ukkohallan Matkailupalvelut Oy.
     
On Sunday the weather in Hyrynsalmi was not too bad, with the mercury indicating a rather balmy –30°C.
      “For a few days earlier this month the temperature fluctuated between -35 and -38 degrees Celsius. Last winter Hyrynsalmi was the snowiest location in Finland, but this year we have received less snow because it has been so cold”, Tolonen notes.
      From the Hyrynsalmi perspective, the weather in Helsinki can indeed be considered rather temperate, even if this winter’s coldest temperature, -22.8°C, was just measured in the district of Kumpula last Sunday night.
     
According to the locals, the last time there was this little snow in Hyrynsalmi was forty years ago. At the moment there is only between 30 and 50 centimetres of snow, which again compares rather unfavourably with the Helsinki situation. Down here, most people have grown used to the idea of "black winters", but 2009/2010 has firmly put a stop to that sort of talk.
      A winter up in the Hyrynsalmi latitudes is normally considered weak if there is only around 60-70 centimetres of the white stuff.
      "In the holiday cabins steam has had to be used to defrost the pipes, even when the heating is on full blast and there are people inside”, Tolonen says.
     
Siberia is to blame for the clearly below average temperatures in the whole of Finland, reveals meteorologist Jari Tuovinen from the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
      “This development was set in motion in Siberia already in October. Snowfalls started there earlier than normal and continued throughout the month of November”, Tuovinen explains.
      The continuous airflow from the east and the north gained strength when even Finland got appreciably colder in December.
      And the big freeze goes on.
      “The airflow from the large cold regions in Siberia has this winter replaced last winter’s mild winds from the southwest and west”, Tuovinen continues.
     
So far there are no signs of the weather becoming very much warmer.
      The below-freezing temperatures that have run on since late December in Southern Finland are set to continue.
      In the southeast of the country the frosty weather has been uninterrupted since mid-December.
      “On the west coast the temperature will rise close to zero next week, but the strong southerly wind will nevertheless cause the air to feel much colder”, Tuovinen predicts.
     
And it is not easy for the rest of Europe either. The monthly prediction shows that the icy conditions will continue largely in Central and Eastern Europe.
      Even there the weather has noticeably deviated into the colder direction from what is normal for this time of year.
      This month the coldest temperature recorded in Finland has been -37.1°C in Kuusamo on January 8th.
      This is pretty chilly, but still some way short of the all-time January record, which dates from 1999, when it went down to an Arctic -51.5°C in Kittilä.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 25.1.2010


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Cold winter brings early opening of ice roads (25.1.2010)
  Homeless people go underground to escape the cold (12.1.2010)
  Cold weather sends electricity consumption soaring (11.1.2010)
  Helsinki councillors do not want to throw Roma beggars into cold streets (21.1.2010)

Links:
  Winter is coldest since 2003 (4.1.2010)
  Finnish Meteorological Institute - five-day forecast for Suomussalmi
  Celsius to Fahrenheit converter
  Read them and shiver: coldest places in Finland, January 2010 and all-time January (FMI)

KATJA KUOKKANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
katja.kuokkanen@hs.fi