It's going to get cold - Are you ready for it?

Helsinki residents might have lost touch with winter realities, but there is no need for panic

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By Ann-Mari Huhtanen
     
      So the wintertime is coming, the windows are filled with frost, even in Southern Finland.
      The metropolitan area will get to enjoy some proper cold conditions, as the predictions are that the temperature will remain below freezing all week, and it could get quite chilly, at least by modern standards.
      Down south, the weathermen say, it could reach as low as -20°C, and in the Greater Helsinki area itself we can expect temperatures of -10 to -15°C.
     
Given that this is Finland, one might ask what the fuss is, but recent winters have often been so mild that there may be some who have forgotten what it is all about.
      One thing worth bringing back to mind is that getting into the car and driving off to work becomes a rather longer business when one has to scrape the windscreen and windows of ice, and of the snow that is being forecast off and on throughout the coming week.
     
The last time we had a December as cold as this one down here was in 2002.
      Still, there is no need for panic. Things have been a lot worse in the past and we survived more or less intact.
      Even if the younger generation don't remember it, grandmother does.
      In the old days it could get down to minus 40. And when it did, it could last a week or two at least in the big freeze, recalls my own grandmother Eeva Huhtanen.
     
"In 1955, we had the first hard frosts in October, when we were still building the house. You had to sleep with a hat on, and there was frost on the walls, because it was still post-war austerity and all that, and the insulation was a bit non-existent. And then when we got the house finished we couldn't get any heat on, as the pipes would have frozen anyway. And when we did get it warmed up, even -17°C seemed like it was as warm as toast. That's how it was back then."
      Yep. No cause to get all excited about the current mini-freeze.
     
However, there are one or two simple precautions that one can take...
     
     
DON'TS
     
Don't imagine that your tongue and metal objects go together. However much you might be tempted (no, don't laugh, it happens every year) to give them a lick, things like carpet-beating racks or road signs are better left alone. Getting your tongue off hurts - a lot.
     
Don't sit down where you shouldn't, and you might avoid a nasty case of urethritis. Stone steps are not the best places for hanging out in the cold.
     
Don't risk your health for a fashion statement. Drainpipe tight jeans are best left in the wardrobe when the going gets hard like this, since it's physically impossible to get much on underneath them. Make longjohns into the new black!
     
     
DOS
     
Do dress sensibly. Forget image scarves and all that - bare skin in the winter is so last season. The commando cap popularised by demonstrators and activists provides protection and it works.
     
Do give a thought to insulated overtrousers, even if they might be the kiss of death on the catwalk. Up in the north, for instance in Rovaniemi, young people wear them over their little black numbers when they are heading out to a bar. HS recommends.
     
Do keep those arms moving. If everyone jumps up and down like a lunatic and waves their arms, none of us need feel embarrassed about it.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 14.12.2009
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Meteorological Institute predicts freeze will continue until Christmas (15.12.2009)

Links:
  St. Lucy´s Day (Wikipedia)
  Finnish Meteorological Institute
  Climate in Finland (FMI)

ANN-MARI HUHTANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
ann-mari.huhtanen@hs.fi