Meteorologists warned on Saturday that this winter’s biggest snowstorm to date could wreak havoc and blast transport most of Finland, especially on the south coast.
A snowstorm called Valtter could bring up to 30 to 40 inches of clumps to some areas this weekend.
Several flights departing from Helsinki-Vantaa Airport between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning and the departure of the passenger ferry between Vaasa and Umeå in Sweden on Sunday have been canceled.
Unprecedented “code red”
The Finnish Meteorological Institute issued the first-ever red traffic warning to Uusimaa, which includes the Helsinki metropolitan area.
The institute warned "very poor road conditions" between 3pm and midnight due to snow "likely to cause major traffic disruption" and "significant risk of accident". It also issued a warning of strong south-southeast winds at the same time. According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute, gusts of 20 meters per second can cause trees to fall and power outages.
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however Mika Rantanen According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute’s Climate Change and Extreme Weather team, the storm may not be historic.
"Although this is indeed the first time in history that red traffic weather is in force, it is due to the fact that the red level of this warning category was only introduced last winter," he wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
"The storm itself is unusual, but not unprecedented. For example, last winter (January 2021) a snowfall called Toini brought 20-30 cm of snow to Uusimaa. Also in November 2012, storm Antti brought ~ 30 cm of snow to Helsinki with a strong east wind," added Rantanen.
“Malik” crosses the UK and the Nordic countries
Snow and sleet began to hit Åland on Saturday morning, and they arrived on the west coast at noon. The rain was expected to start in the Helsinki region at about 2 p.m.
The low-pressure system, which the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) has called Storm Malik, is also expected to cause strong winds and humid weather in the UK on Saturday, according to the British Meteorological Institute. In neighboring Sweden, trains were canceled because wind gusts of up to 30 m / s were forecast.
Be updated.
Source: The Nordic Page