The storm dubbed “Seija” brought winds gusting to almost 30 m/s on land and one reading of 36.8 m/s at sea, just off the western coastal town of Rauma.
As of 7 AM on Friday morning, almost 200,000 households across the country were without electricity, as the storm knocked out power lines.
Fallen trees blocked several rail lines in western areas and disrupted ferry traffic. Train traffic was suspended Friday morning on six routes: Tampere-Pori-Tampere, Turku-Loimaa-Turku, Karjaa-Salo-Karjaa, Seinäjoki-Vaasa-Seinäjoki, Kokkola-Ylivieska-Kokkola, Tampere-Jämsä-Tampere. The state railways VR is supplying passengers on these routes with alternative bus transportation.
Updates on rail services in English are available from VR's traffic bulletins.
Trees blocking roads
The Finnish Transport Agency's road traffic centre reported that many secondary roads were blocked by fallen trees on Friday morning in southern and central parts of the country and up into Kainuu and southern Lapland.
Emergency services and road maintenance crews are working to clear roads, but a road traffic centre spokesman told Yle that some roads may not be cleared until late in the day.
Minor air delays
Air traffic at Helsinki-Vantaa airport was at close to normal Friday morning, with high winds causing only slight delays of around 10 minutes for some flights.
However, because of crosswinds, the airport was operating only a single runway, which has reduced overall capacity. A Finavia representative said that for safety reasons, there may be some further minor delays during the morning peak hours.
Air traffic at the nation's other airports was reported as operating normally.
