Piled higher than the rollercoaster at Linnanmäki

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By Jenni Virtanen
     
      So here it is, in all its glory. Presumably Helsinki's tallest heap of snow.
      More than 20,000 truckloads of snow have been scraped and ploughed off the streets of the capital and ferried to the snow dump in Maununneva.
      Last Thursday the last truckloads were added to the pile.
     
There have already been articles in the press (see link below) claiming that this mighty mound of snow is not going anywhere fast, and that it will not melt before autumn comes around - and if autumn comes early, that could mean new snow settling on the old.
      Helsingin Sanomat has decided to monitor the situation.
      The men from the City of Helsinki's Public Works Department will be measuring the pile every second week, and the results will be published in the pages of the newspaper's Sunday supplement.
     
In order to take the first measurement, Aki Stenholm clambered up to the summit of the artificial hill equipped with an EDM reflector, while down below on Kaarelankatu Jonne Raatikainen manned the theodolite and electronic distance meter.
      This sort of "total station" device is standard issue for land surveyors and used for measuring coordinates, angles, and distances for just about anything that is to be built in the urban environment, for instance roads and water pipes.
      This time it is being employed to measure accurately just how high the Maununneva snow-pile is.
     
The thawing of the snow is hampered by the presence of sand and gravel in with the white stuff, which eventually comes to the surface. It will be scraped off later in the spring.
      When the relatively fluffy surface snow burns off in the sun, what gets left behind is a pretty compressed pile of ice.
      This is tougher stuff, and will only start to thaw effectively in the spring rain.
     
And what of the first measurement - the benchmark figure?
      On April 1, 2010, the pile had a height of 26.90 metres from top to bottom.
      This is quite impressive, as it clearly beats out the 24 metres of the familiar wooden roller-coaster at Helsinki's Linnanmäki amusement park.
      We shall see how things develop as the spring progresses.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 3.4.2010
     
     
Note: Some may question why Finns are making such a fuss about snow, of all things. Yes, we get snow, but nothing on this scale "in living memory". As our earlier article indicated, the volume of snow that has had to be shifted in the capital is roughly four times the winter norm. In Espoo they can boast even more: at the Turvesuo snow dump in Laajalahti, a total of 36,000 truckloads have been received this winter. The usual figure is less than 5,000, and the previous Espoo record - set in 1999 - was no more than around 20,000 truckloads.
      So it is not as though we are complaining for no good reason. Quite apart from the interest whetted by whether one very large pile of snow will vanish or not, there is the much more down-to-earth consideration of what will happen to the snow that definitely DOES melt - and what this will mean for anyone happening to live in an area subject to flooding. This year, exceptional spring floods in the south may affect people who really are not expecting it... (see daily article from 6.4.).


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Here to stay? Snow cleared from capital area´s streets and public places may not melt before next winter (10.3.2010)

See also:
  Flooding is expected to peak in many rivers in Southern Finland this week (6.4.2010)

JENNI VIRTANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
jenni.virtanen@hs.fi