The normally ice-free Kola fjord along Murmansk is now covered with ice. This has only happened five times before in course of the last 100 years, last time during the extreme winter of 1998-1999.
The capital of Finnish Lapland, Rovaniemi, passed one hundred days of continuous sub-zero weather on Monday, YLE reports. The thermometer there fell below the freezing point on November 4th.
According to statistics, the city has now moved into the fifth longest period of sub-zero temperatures in the past 50 years, the Finnish Metrological Institute reports. The present cold snap has also brought this winter’s record low in Lapland where -37.9 °C was recorded in the early hours of Monday.
People in Karasjok in the inland of Finnmark, Norway, are used to extremely low temperatures. In January 1999 the thermometer showed -51.2°C. The village also holds Norwegian record in low temperature with -51.4 in 1886.
After a few weeks with “comfortable” temperatures of around -30°C, the inhabitants in Karasjok woke up on Monday to -41. Although all schools remain open, the local transport company has had to stop school transport in the village, NRK reports.
Meanwhile in Murmansk, people braved temperatures of -25°C as 2700 persons took part in last Sunday’s nation-wide skiing race “Ski Track of Russia”.
The cold weather is expected to continue the whole week.
