Winter arrives in force as blizzard sweeps across Southern Finland

Road, rail, air and sea traffic all disrupted; power lines down in Eastern and Southereastern Finland, as first snow dumps several inches over wide area

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The south of Finland and the capital region stormed into winter conditions on Sunday as a powerful blizzard swept across southern and central districts of the country, dropping 10-15 centimetres of snow in Helsinki and bringing delays and cancellations to trains, ferries, and to flights in and out of Helsinki-Vantaa International.
     
The strong, gusting winds that accompanied the heavy fall of snow also brought down trees and power lines, blacking out tens of thousands of homes in the east and south-east of the country, and in the Greater Helsinki area there was even the unusual spectacle of winter thunder and lightning.
      Snowploughs were called into action in the capital region for the first time, and the intention was to get all major roads cleared by 07:00, but morning commuters on Monday were warned to expect difficult conditions and delays.
     
A large depression swept across the country from Estonia, affecting southern and central districts of Finland first and heading up towards Lapland overnight.
      During the course of the afternoon and evening flights into and out of Helsinki-Vantaa were subject to cancellations, delays, and diversions, as only one of the three runways was open for long periods and visibility was down to several hundred metres.
      Fast vessels on the Helsinki-Tallinn route remained in port or were hours late arriving, and long-distance trains were also subject to delays of 30 minutes to an hour.
     
It is expected that commuter traffic will be rather chaotic as the working week gets under way, with trams and buses in the capital having problems. More flights out of Helsinki-Vantaa are expected to be delayed, too, as incoming aircraft are late arriving.
      Finnish Railways (VR) has cancelled a number of long-distance departures today, Monday, and local commuter trains were up to an hour late in the morning rush-hour, leaving passengers stranded on platforms and in a poor temper.
      It was not so much the arrival of snow that caught public transport and road clearance services off guard, but the sheer quantity received and the drifting that was caused by the wind.
      Snow-ploughing operations during the day will be hampered by traffic, and of course those areas cleared early on Sunday evening soon filled up with whirling snow once again.
      Merely digging one's car out on Monday morning was an effort in itself, and conditions on roads around the capital were far from pleasant, prompting some taxi-drivers to exhort people to leave their cars at home and take buses instead.
     
The timing had a classic feel to it: not only was the country given a thick coating of white on a Sunday, when snow clearance services are slower to leap into action, but it also coincided with the switching on of the Christmas lights in downtown Helsinki, attended by none other than Santa Claus himself.
      For once the great man could have no complaints about unseasonal conditions.
      Police, on the other hand, were sighing as more than four times the normal number of fender-bender accidents took place in the capital on Sunday evening. No serious accidents were reported locally, perhaps a consequence of the severity of conditions, which forced drivers to exercise caution and kept speeds down.
     
In Estonia, a bus carrying Finnish tourists left the road in Lihula in the west of the country.
      Several people were injured, with one woman reportedly in a serious but stable condition.
     
Monday's weather forecast is for the snow to slacken off in southern districts, but it will not stop altogether.
      The wind is nevertheless gradually dying down, and temperatures are expected to remain one or two degrees below freezing.
      Tuesday should see slightly clearer skies before another belt of precipitation drops sleet and rain across the south of the country as the temperature heads back above 0°C again.
     


See also:
  Readers´ Photos (HS, captions in Finnish)
  Video: Trains were delayed and departures cancelled in Helsinki on Monday morning.

Links:
  Traffic in the Greater Helsinki Region
  Finnish Meteorological Institute
  Helsinki-Vantaa Arrivals and Departures
  Finnish Road Administration - Road Weather Conditions

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