Snowstorm disrupts power supply, transport services in Southern Finland

A snowstorm hit the southern part of Finland on Wednesday disrupting power supply and transport services.

The southern region and adjacent areas experienced five centimetres to 15 centimetres wet snow while the snowstorm disrupted power supply and rail, road and air services, according to Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), power supply companies and transport services operators.

Electricity supply snapped at more than 45,000 households in Southern and Eastern Finland by the evening, reported national broadcaster Yle, citing power supply companies.

The Helsinki Regional Transport Authority (Helsingin seudun liikenne – HSL) said that the poor weather conditions caused significant disruptions to traffic on Wednesday, which will continue on Thursday.

Some bus services, particularly in sparsely populated areas were cancelled due to poor weather conditions and snowfall.

The train, tram and Metro services, however, operated normally but D trains were cancelled for Wednesday and Thursday. Traffic was congested on Mannerheimintie, causing delays to bus services.Delays and some cancellations to main line train services also took place due to maintenance work.

National flag carrier Finnair said that flights were also disrupted due to the snowfall at Helsinki Airport on Wednesday.

Challenging weather conditions caused limitations on air traffic and slow down ground handling operations and the authority had to cancel several flights while many other flights delayed.

Meanwhile, the FMI said that the heavy snowfall will spread to the central and northern parts of the country on Thursday.

At the same time, strong gusty wind likely to blow over the Northeastern part of the country.

In the Southern and Central Finland, the road will be very slippery while the temperature in most of other parts will be in between 5 degrees Celsius and 15 degrees Celsius and in Lapland the temperature will go down up to 25 degrees Celsius.