“This is the lowest January temperature that Sweden has experienced since 1999,” observes Mattias Lind from the Swedish National Meteorological Agency SMHI.
The weather conditions made traffic on many roads significantly more difficult.
ANDERS WIKLUND / AFP
Measured at the Kvikkjokk-Årrenjarka station in the northern part of Sweden, it is “the lowest temperature recorded at this exact location since measurements began” at this location in 1888, he states.
The thermometer at several other stations in northern Sweden, such as Lapland, showed temperatures below -40 ° C on Wednesday.
“Frozen Cola”
“I ordered takeout yesterday. After thirty minutes of walking, the cola was frozen,” laughs Linda, an Internet user, on the website of the SVT television group.
Water pipes froze in places, meaning residents no longer had running water.
EMMA SOFIA OLSSON / AFP
Snow blocks traffic, several hundred households have no electricity for six hours, frozen water pipes… The Nordic countries have faced extreme weather events in the last 24 hours, affecting traffic and affecting homes.
Although the region is used to very low temperatures, this cold snap forced bus companies to suspend their activities and the local railway company “Vy” announced on Tuesday that it would suspend all trains running north of the Swedish city of Umeå for many days.
In Stockholm, the capital of the Scandinavian kingdom, ten to twenty centimeters of snow was expected on Wednesday, according to SMHI.
There are also disruptions to rail traffic in neighboring Finland, where a seasonal record of -38.7 °C was measured in the north of the Lapland region on Tuesday evening.
In the Swedish municipality of Kiruna, around 800 households were without power on Wednesday.
EMMA SOFIA OLSSON / AFP
Elsewhere in the country, water pipes froze in the city of Tampere (southwest) on Tuesday, leaving around 300 people without running water, local media Yle reported.
The same applies to the Swedish municipality of Kiruna (North), where around 800 households were without power between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Wednesday, local media NSD reported, while the outside temperature was -41 °C.
glacier
In Helsinki, the Finnish capital, where temperatures are around -15°C, the population was unfazed by the even more severe cold that the weather service predicted for the coming days.
“I really like it. It's a question of attitude, I guess,” answered Katja, a young woman from the city, to AFP. And “a question of clothing,” she added, putting on a thick black jacket with the hood on pulled his head.
A severe cold wave is also expected in Norway at the end of the week.
In Stockholm, the Swedish capital, 10 to 20 centimeters of snow was expected this Wednesday.
ANDERS WIKLUND / AFP
In the capital Oslo, temperatures could fall to -27°C this weekend, according to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.
Very heavy snowfall also caused chaos in the south of the country: schools closed and flights were canceled.
In Denmark, due to the snowstorm, the army was called in to help transport the most seriously ill as ambulances had difficulty moving.
19 cm of snow was measured between Silkeborg and Aarhus (centre) on Wednesday morning, approaching the 2019 record (21 cm).
The arrival of a ferry from Oslo to Copenhagen was delayed until Thursday morning as bad weather prevented the boat and its approximately 900 passengers from docking.
Cold waves are decreasing
The occurrence of extreme cold has decreased in probability and intensity worldwide due to climate change, notes World Weather Attribution (WWA), which studies the connection between extreme weather events and global warming.
In the Kiruna region, temperatures reached -41°C.
EMMA SOFIA OLSSON / AFP
“Even in a world that is warming on average, extreme cold and snow are possible at any time due to natural weather fluctuations,” said Ben Clarke of the University of Oxford and Friederike Otto of Imperial College London, both members of the WWA.
In addition, winter cold waves do not contradict the global trend of global warming at the planetary scale, which is a scientifically proven phenomenon.