Snow may affect flight landings and departures at Helsinki Airport on Saturday. According to Finnair, challenging weather conditions are limiting air traffic and slowing ground operations at Finland’s main airport.
The national air carrier said that travellers should expect delays and cancellations, as well as slower handling of arriving and departing baggage.
According to airport operator Finavia, about 10 afternoon departures from Helsinki Airport were delayed.
On Saturday afternoon, a Finnair spokesperson told Yle that the weather had caused delays in departures and arrivals, but that no flights from Helsinki had been cancelled due to the weather.
On the other hand, 14 flights, or seven round-trip departures, had been cancelled on Saturday, due to industrial action, specifically a union ban on shift changes.
All flights to and from these destinations have been cancelled: Paris, Brussels, Manchester, Innsbruck and Dallas, as well as Rovaniemi and Kittilä in Finnish Lapland.
Poor driving conditions on most roads
State railways VR had not reported any weather-related delays or cancellations as of early Saturday afternoon. However, the official Fintraffic website said that only 86 percent of long-distance trains were running on schedule.
As of 2pm, Fintraffic reported that driving conditions were difficult to very difficult on 64 percent of main roads, with five percent rated as very difficult.
No serious traffic accidents were reported on Saturday, but a few fender-benders have disrupted traffic. Early Saturday, a bus slid off a road and a truck blocked traffic in Uusimaa. No injuries were reported.
Around 11am, two cars collided at the intersection of Keravantie and Lahdentie in Kerava, disrupting traffic for nearly an hour. Four people, including a child, were taken to hospital.
Vehicles also slid off Highway 3 in Tampere and Highway 4 in Mäntsälä, causing traffic delays.
Skies clearing, temps dropping overnight
Plenty of new snow has accumulated in southern Finland since Friday.
According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), the most snow has accumulated in Lahti, where almost 20 centimetres of fresh snow had fallen by midday on Saturday.
More than 10 centimetres of new snow had fallen in the capital region and other parts of Uusimaa.
By evening, the snowfall in the south will gradually diminish and skies will clear overnight. Temperatures will drop -10 degrees Celsius tonight in the south, -18 in some central areas and down to -30 in parts of Lapland.
Snowfall in southern Finland was tapering off in the afternoon, but a couple of additional centimetres of snow was still expected on Saturday, the FMI said.
During the day, snow fell across parts of the south of a line roughly between Salo and Savonlinna.
"The precipitation will continue the longest in the southeastern corner of the country, where an additional five centimetres may fall. The capital region may still collect a couple of centimetres more," meteorologist Pinja Rauhamäki told the news agency STT on Saturday afternoon.
There was only light snow in the north, and skies are set to clear in the south overnight.
"On Sunday, there will be mainly light snow throughout the country," Rauhamäki said.
The FMI warns of poor driving conditions in Uusimaa, Southwest Finland, Kanta-Häme, Päijät-Häme, South Savo, South Karelia and Kymenlaakso until 8 pm. In the southeast, driving conditions are particularly hazardous due to drifting snow driven by brisk winds.
Road conditions in the northwestern arm of Lapland will become poor on Saturday evening due to snowfall, remaining so until Sunday afternoon.
3.48pm: Updated information about Finnair cancellations.
5.55pm: Added information about Kerava crash.
