COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Temperatures fell under minus 40 levels Celsius (minus 40 levels Fahrenheit) within the Nordic area for a second day in a row Wednesday, with the coldest January temperature recorded in Sweden in 25 years.
In Kvikkjokk-Årrenjarka in Swedish Lapland, the mercury dropped to minus 43.6 C (minus 46.5 F), the coldest temperature within the nation in January since 1999, Sweden’s TT information company reported.
On Tuesday, Nikkaluokta, a village inhabited by indigenous Sami folks in northern Sweden, recorded a temperature of minus 41.6 C (minus 42.8 F). The village is in Lapland, which stretches from northern components of Norway by way of Sweden and Finland to Russia.
Ida Dahlström of the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute stated northern Sweden had in a single day temperatures of minus 25–35 C (minus 13-31 F) “and the chilly appears to remain there for the remainder of the week,” TT reported.
The coldest Swedish temperature in January — minus 49 C (minus 56 F) — was recorded on Jan 27, 1999, within the city of Karesuando close to the Finnish border.
The climate -– chilly with snow and gale-force winds — disrupted transportation all through the Nordic area, with a number of bridges closed and a few prepare and ferry providers suspended. A number of faculties in Scandinavia had been closed.
In Finland, the climate is forecast to stay chilly throughout the nation with temperatures right down to minus 35 C (minus 31 F) within the north, not less than till Sunday.
Police throughout most of Denmark urged motorists on Wednesday to keep away from pointless journeys as wind and snow battered the northern and western components of the nation.
The Danish Meteorological Institute stated there was a threat of snowy and icy roads in massive components of the nation and issued an orange warning -– its second highest — for sturdy rains within the south, which is battling flooding.
Additional south, components of Germany — the place the climate has been gentle and moist — had been additionally grappling with flooding, which might be aggravated by new rain within the worst-affected northwestern state of Decrease Saxony.
Police close to the southern Dutch metropolis of Eindhoven stated sturdy winds might have performed a job within the demise of a 75-year-old man who fell off his bicycle late Tuesday as excessive winds lashed a lot of the Netherlands.
___ Related Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin, Mike Corder in Amsterdam and Jari Tanner in Helsinki contributed to this report.