Up to 100,000 Finnish households could be without power as dawn breaks, meteorologist tells HS

By admin On Nov 21, 2024

A pedestrian in rain gear crossed a sleet-covered street in Helsinki on Wednesday, 20 November 2024. A winter storm brought heavy snow and sleet, as well as strong winds, to large parts of the country yesterday, leaving roughly 70,000 households without power as the day turned to Thursday. (Vesa Moilanen – Lehtikuva)

ALMOST 71,000 Finnish households were without power at midnight after a winter storm pummelled areas stretching from the south-western coast to eastern parts of North Ostrobothnia, according to a power outage map from Finnish Energy.

Paavo Korpela, a meteorologist on duty at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), said to Helsingin Sanomat yesterday evening that the number of households affected by power outages could rise over 100,000 before dawn breaks.

FMI has warned that winds could pick up to 31 metres per second and cause waves as high as seven metres in parts of the Gulf of Bothnia.

Winds of such velocity are on average recorded in sea areas once every 14 years, according to Korpela. He did not rule out the possibility that some localities could record sustained wind speeds of over 33 metres per second – which would mark already the second occurrence of hurricane-force winds in the sea areas of Finland in November.

“In a situation like this, I don’t think it’s impossible that we see a repeat [of hurricane-force winds], but if that happens it’ll probably be a fairly localised phenomenon,” he remarked to the newspaper.

Also land areas have recorded strong winds on Wednesday.

“In terms of the effects, we’re dealing with a major disruption, there are lots of power outages. Winds are presently at their strongest, but the situation will probably continue for the next three to four hours,” he predicted shortly after 11.30pm on Wednesday.

The storm has also brought heavy sleet and snow to large parts of Finland. Koskela said the rainy front is moving from central regions toward the west and north but added that also southern regions will continue to have rain on Thursday.

In Uusimaa, temperatures are forecast to climb a few degrees above freezing point, a welcome development according to Koskela. The warmer temperatures, he explained, should prevent snow from adding to what is already widespread damage in the most populous region of Finland.

Päivyt Tallqvist, the director of communications at Finnair, stated to Ilta-Sanomat on Wednesday that the conditions are challenging at Helsinki Airport. Only a single runway was in use and several aircraft were delayed yesterday evening due to longer-than-usual waiting times for ground de-icing services.

The airport had cancelled 17 return flights due to the weather, adding to the 11 that had been cancelled in anticipation of the difficult conditions. A couple of flights had also been re-directed to other airports.

Ilta-Sanomat also reported that one person died in a traffic accident in Laukaa, Central Finland. A police press release indicates that the accident took place on national road 4 after 6pm, after a passenger car is believed to have drifted to the opposite lane and crashed head first into a tanker lorry. Police described road conditions at the site of the incident as slippery and the weather as hazardous.

The driver of the lorry did not sustain serious physical injuries.

Aleksi Teivainen – HT

Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi