Heavy rain and thunderstorms hit central Finland on Wednesday night, causing local flooding and street damage.
Pyry PoutanenA meteorologist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute said that the thunderstorm was accompanied by a warm, humid air mass, which is not typical at this time of year.
The overnight storm caused local floods and water damage, especially in Jyväskylä, according to the city.
The city saw 20-30 mm of rain in one day, and a 25.3 mm accumulation was recorded at Jyväskylä Airport.
"That’s about half a month’s average rainfall. It came quickly and in a short time. The biggest problem with this type of heavy rain is that rainwater networks cannot keep up when water comes in [at that pace]. Many urban areas were flooded," Poutanen said.
According to him, the storm provided relatively little wind, about 10 m / s, saving trees and power lines.
"Damage begins to occur when gusts of wind are about 15-20 m / s," he added that the area managed to avoid major damage caused by the storm.
During the Wednesday evening storm, there were also a large number of lightning strikes, more than 7,000, most of which were within a 50 km radius around Jyväskylä.
Poutanen said that during the whole of May, the average number of lighting shocks has been about 8,000.
Jyväskylä hit the hardest
The greatest damage in Jyväskylä was observed in the Kuokkala district and in the northern parts of the city.
Some of the streets were also covered with sand and crushed rock, and heavy rain washed away the partially paved sidewalks and sandy beaches.
According to the city, renovation work is underway to repair the damage as soon as possible, and pointed out that Kammintie Street would be closed during the work.
Some of the road repairs will continue next week, according to the city.
Small, sandy roads in the Viitasaari area are particularly hard hit by the Wednesday night flood.
The national traffic management company Fintraffic announced on Thursday morning that there were several underwater points on Viitasaaritie road 775 and floods were reported at least between Kinnula’s Aholanmäki and Naarajärvi.
Fintraffic also said that drivers in the Tampere area reported flooding areas on Saarijärvi Honkatie Road and Viitasaari Lonnikontie Road.
Quelle: Die nordische Seite
