A thunderstorm front that caused local damage in western and central Finland on Friday still held parts of the country in its grip on the last day of summer.
A band of precipitation and wind brought strong thunderstorms to South and North Karelia, cutting off electricity and felling trees.
Thunderstorms hit North Karelia especially hard, packing winds of up to 25 metres per second. Heavy rains swept across the eastern region on Saturday afternoon. Around 2pm, 19 millimetres of water fell within an hour in Nurmes, northeast of Kuopio.
The rescue service of North Karelia was busy with about 40 call-outs in the early evening, most involving trees that had fallen on roads.
Duty manager Ville-Petteri Pulkkinen said that cleaning up the damage will take time.
"The main roads are the priority. People on private roads and smaller side roads must be prepared to wait," he told Yle.
According to Pulkkinen, some trees fell on top of cars, but he had not yet heard any reports of personal injuries.
7,000+ households lose power
By early evening, the storm front that caused the damage had receded near the eastern border and was slowly moving away from Finland, Yle meteorologist Aleksi Lohtander said.
The west coast, meanwhile, was still being soaked by heavy rain, which continued through much of the day.
Shortly after 6pm, Finnish Energy reported that more than 7,000 households were without electricity. They were mostly clustered in eastern Finland, along with pockets in the west and around Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland.
Around the same time, the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) issued updated warnings of heavy downpours in southwest Finland and along the west coast.
It also warned of thundersqualls, strong winds and rough waves on most sea districts – including a gale warning on the Southern Sea of Bothnia, where winds may exceed 17 metres per second.
Warm start to September
For Sunday, the outlook is calmer on land, but there are still small-craft advisories for lightning, high waves and near-gale-force winds at sea. Rain is predicted for the southwest and parts of central Finland, but otherwise a partly sunny day is in store.
That should continue for the first week of September in many parts of the country, with temperatures rising back near the 25-degree mark in some southern areas.
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