Helsinki hit by unusually heavy deluge; streets and cellars flooded on Monday evening

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An exceptionally heavy shower - more or less a cloudburst - took residents of the capital by surprise on Monday evening, blocking drains and disrupting road traffic in downtown Helsinki.
      Buses had to swerve across pavements when trying to evade masses of water at least in the districts of Munkkivuori and Pitäjänmäki, where an underpass was entirely out of service because of the standing water.
      According to the Helsinki Urban Traffic Control Centre, the deluge also hampered tram traffic. At least on the tram-line number 9 in the district of Vallila, one tramcar was derailed by the mass of water, forcing the other trams to divert. In addition, the lines 6 and 8 had to use alternative routes.
      Communications Specialist Tuija Ruoho from Helsinki Region Transport (HSL) reported that even traffic light failures were bound to disrupt the road traffic.
      The Helsinki Region Traffic Management Centre reported that there were some problems in the vehicle presence detectors on Mannerheimintie and Vihdintie, which is why the lights were obstinately red all the time.
     
Because of the heavy rain, the Emergency Response Centre (ERC) also had a hard time of it.
      According to the duty fire chief, the ERC received dozens of emergency calls concerning the blocked drains. In addition, the thunder that accompanied the heavy downpour caused a number of false alarms by triggering some automatic alarm systems.
      In the district of Munkkiniemi, the premises and basement of a store were flooded.
      The rain made also the floor drains inside houses flood, but according to the ERC, the ensuing damages were rather small. Another incident of water damage occurred at the Meilahti Hospital, while the cellar of the Helsinki Sports Hall on Helsinginkatu flooded with the water level topping out at around half a metre.
     
All ERC vehicles were in service on Monday evening.
      According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), the rain started abruptly around 6:30 pm.
      The shower of rain came from the sea to the south, strengthening above Helsinki. However, there were considerable local differences.
      Meteorologist Pauli Jokinen, who keeps a weather blog in Helsingin Sanomat, says that the amount of rain that came down last night in one hour was around half of the amount of precipitation usually received in August.
      Between 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm, the amount of precipitation recorded was about 39 millimetres (roughly an inch and a half), while the normal amount of water received in Helsinki’s Kaisaniemi in August is 78 millimetres.
      Today the weather in the southern parts of Finland is expected to be partly cloudy, while Eastern Finland is enjoying clear weather, the FMI reports.


Links:
  Helsinki Region Transport
  City of Helsinki Urban Traffic Control Centre
  Finnish Meteorological Institute

Helsingin Sanomat