Thunderstorms leave thousands without power
A few hundred households remained without electricity on Sunday afternoon after the previous night’s dramatic thunderstorms.
Power was cut from thousands of households in the night between Saturday and Sunday.
Heavy lightning activity and blustery winds caused electricity cuts in power company Fortum’s grid in western, south-western and southern Finland. The power company reported that most electricity disruptions only lasted for a few minutes. Longer cuts were due to power converters being damaged by lightning.
Fortum says they have managed to repair most damage over the night and early morning of Sunday. The company had to quadruple their repairs personnel to fix damages wrought by the thundery weather.
Lightning has also caused havoc in the grid serviced by Elenia, the company formerly known as Vattenfall. On Sunday afternoon, over 300 clients remained without electricity. During the heaviest thunderstorms over 4,000 lost power.
Elenia estimates that most damage will be repaired over Sunday afternoon. The company operates in the regions of Häme, Pirkanmaa, central Finland and Ostrobothnia.
More thunder and lighting is on the way later on Sunday. After an afternoon with thunderstorms in eastern Finland, a new storm front coming in from the west is set to bring thundery weather first to the west coast, then moving north-east in the evening.
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