You may want to make the most of predicted pleasant weather on Sunday – before heavy precipitation and winds hit on Monday.
Sunday should bring sunny skies to most of Finland, with moderate afternoon temperatures ranging between +2 degrees Celsius in the southwest to -8 in northern Lapland. By early Monday, that is likely to change dramatically.
"On Sunday night, a broad low-pressure system will arrive in Finland from the west, bringing abundant snow and sleet. On Monday, more than 10 cm of snow will accumulate in many places. In the south, some of the precipitation will come down as rain," Yle meteorologist Elias Paakkanen said on Saturday afternoon.
According to Paakkanen, 20 cm or more of snow may accumulate in the east, mainly North Karelia, North Savo and Kainuu, and in the west as far as Ostrobothnia, with the low pressure system set to linger over these areas until Tuesday.
The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) has a similar forecast. It predicts clearing skies on Saturday evening, or overnight in the eastern areas. Temperatures will mostly hover between zero and -4 degrees Celsius, rising to +2 on Sunday in the west. The FMI predicts moderate to strong winds from the west and south-west.
For Monday, its forecast calls for heavy snowfall across a large swath of Finland, mixed with rain in the south.
The FMI warns of poor driving conditions through nearly the entire country on Monday. There is an orange alert for extremely poor conditions across a large part of central Finland from Ostrobothnia to South Savo and up north to Kuusamo.
There are also warnings of strong wind at sea with rough waves in the Northern Baltic, where significant wave height may exceed four metres.
On Tuesday, conditions should ease in central and southern Finland, as the band of snowfall moves north to Sodankylä and Kittilä. Meanwhile southwestern Finland and Uusimaa may get more new snowfall on Wednesday.
