Thousands of tourists were stranded in northern Finland after flights at Kittila airport were cancelled due to extremely low temperatures. The temperature at the airport dropped to -37 degrees Celsius on Sunday morning, after several days of arctic-like weather, which made it difficult to de-ice planes and other operations, Sky News reports.
Stranded British tourists have a chance to return home on Monday afternoon, when flights to Manchester and London are scheduled, but forecasts from Britain’s Met Office show temperatures will still be around -28 degrees Celsius by then. Kittilä is located in Finnish Lapland, in the sparsely populated northern part of the country.
Despite being accustomed to cold winter temperatures, Finns have been hit by this year’s cold snap, which is more severe than in previous years and has hit large areas of northern, central and eastern Europe. Heavy snowfall, strong winds and icy roads have made travel across the continent extremely dangerous. In Germany, train passengers suffered major delays and cancellations on Sunday after heavy snowfall forced rail operator Deutsche Bahn to suspend all services in the north of the country.
Authorities said all schools in North Rhine-Westphalia, the country’s most populous western state, would remain closed on Monday due to low temperatures. In the Baltic states of Estonia and Lithuania, drivers were urged to postpone all non-essential travel due to expected snowstorms, while neighboring Latvia issued a snow warning for the western part of the country.