Sweden on Wednesday recorded its lowest temperature in 25 years on its territory in January, minus 43.6C in the far north, a cold snap that is also affecting neighboring Finland and Norway.
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“To put things in perspective, this is the lowest January temperature Sweden has experienced since 1999,” Mattias Lind of the Swedish National Meteorological Agency SMHI told AFP.
This was measured at the Kvikkjokk-Årrenjarka station in the northern part of Sweden. “This is the lowest temperature recorded at this particular location since measurements began in 1888,” he added.
AFP
The thermometer at several other stations in northern Sweden, such as Lapland, showed temperatures below -40 ° C on Wednesday.
“I ordered a takeaway yesterday, after thirty minutes of walking the Coke froze,” laughs an Internet user named Linda on the website of the SVT television group.
AFP
Although the region is used to very low temperatures, the recent cold spell has forced local bus companies to suspend their activities, and the local railway company “Vy” announced on Tuesday that it was canceling all trains running north of the city of Umeå for several days have days.
There are also disruptions to rail traffic in neighboring Finland, where a seasonal record of -38.7 °C was recorded in the northern Sámi region on Tuesday evening.
AFP
Elsewhere in the country, water pipes froze in the city of Tampere (in the southwest), leaving around 300 people without running water on Tuesday, local media Yle reported.
In Helsinki, where temperatures were 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 probably a question of mindset,” Katja, a young woman from the capital, told AFP.
“It's about clothing,” she added, putting on a thick black winter jacket with the hood pulled over her head.
A severe cold wave is also expected in Norway at the end of the week.
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, where schools were closed and flights were cancelled.