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Even up here at 60° North Latitude, it has been exceptionally hot. The heat itself is tolerable, especially if one opens many windows and removes many clothes, but appears to have triggered a series of mega-thunderstorms - which in turn have caused microbursts (local downdrafts with strong winds) all over the country.
One microburst hit a music festival in progress. One man died (several days later) after part of the stage was blown into him. Several others were badly hurt.
Elsewhere, trees were blown over, some of them falling onto various railway lines. Last Monday morning, a train hit one of them - nobody hurt, but it blocked the line for most of the day since there was damage to the overhead wires. The only passenger trains to pass that spot were the inbound services from Russia, and they had diesel assistance.
Guess who was in the train immediately following the one that hit the tree? We reached Joensuu about 2.5 hours late, after working slowly through a signal failure area, taking a bus past the blocked line, getting another train up most of the way, and finally being unceremoniously transferred to a relief train one stop (half an hour) short of Joensuu because our train was too far overdue for it's return trip. The relief train took half an hour to arrive and another half hour to turn around.
Lots of people in the countryside lost power, too. When virtually the whole country is covered in forests and lakes, a bunch of trees getting blown over in random places is bound to hit power lines eventually.
The good news, for me at least, is that there was no significant damage in the capital region, even though some of the storms hit here. Most of the power lines are underground, the rest are part of the main grid and thus too tall for trees to fall on them. The buildings are generally very sturdily constructed too - in the country wooden houses are much more common.
Still, that's the payback for the extra-cold winter we just had - an extra-hot summer to compensate.
One microburst hit a music festival in progress. One man died (several days later) after part of the stage was blown into him. Several others were badly hurt.
Elsewhere, trees were blown over, some of them falling onto various railway lines. Last Monday morning, a train hit one of them - nobody hurt, but it blocked the line for most of the day since there was damage to the overhead wires. The only passenger trains to pass that spot were the inbound services from Russia, and they had diesel assistance.
Guess who was in the train immediately following the one that hit the tree? We reached Joensuu about 2.5 hours late, after working slowly through a signal failure area, taking a bus past the blocked line, getting another train up most of the way, and finally being unceremoniously transferred to a relief train one stop (half an hour) short of Joensuu because our train was too far overdue for it's return trip. The relief train took half an hour to arrive and another half hour to turn around.
Lots of people in the countryside lost power, too. When virtually the whole country is covered in forests and lakes, a bunch of trees getting blown over in random places is bound to hit power lines eventually.
The good news, for me at least, is that there was no significant damage in the capital region, even though some of the storms hit here. Most of the power lines are underground, the rest are part of the main grid and thus too tall for trees to fall on them. The buildings are generally very sturdily constructed too - in the country wooden houses are much more common.
Still, that's the payback for the extra-cold winter we just had - an extra-hot summer to compensate.
. There were no music in the garden. To be fair I have to say that he invited all the neighbours to the party, I just need my sleep after chemo.
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