Miserable snow conditions in Finland
With long-term forecasts now extending to late December, meteorologists at Finland’s public broadcaster Yle, say it is likely that sleigh rides and snowmen will be a part of the Christmas holiday throughout the whole of the country.
Snow conditions can accurately be described as miserable in most of Finland at the moment. What little snow that did accumulate in southern and central areas of the country quickly melted and the snowline now runs from the southern part of North Ostrobothnia through southern North Savo to North Karelia.
Generally, North Ostrobothnia and Kainuu have fairly good snow cover, with for example around 10cm on the ground in parts of Oulu,
Finnish Arctic only exception
Lapland is the exception, where there is plenty of snow, for example the 40cm reported by the Finnish Meteorological Institute measure station at Sodankylä on Wednesday morning.
Elsewhere, no change is expected this week, but next week colder air is forecast to stream into the country bringing sub-zero temperatures all the way down to the south coast. While it is still too early to forecast the movement of weather fronts carrying snow over the Christmas period with a high degree of accuracy, cold temperatures are a certainty and a white Christmas nationwide is a very strong probability.
You can check for snow cover just about anywhere in the country by taking a look at the some 700 road camera feeds of the Finnish Transport Agency. Click the box marked “Kelikamerat” on the right of the screen to display the selection of available cameras.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Nunavut Ice Monitoring (VIDEO), Eye on the Arctic
Greenland: Changing Sea Ice: The Ripple Effect (VIDEO), Eye on the Arctic
Norway: 2014 warmest year in history for Norway, Barents Observer
Sweden: Storm Helga weather warning for Sweden, Radio Sweden
United States: Unusual weather pattern brings record highs to Arctic Alaska, Alaska Dispatch News
