Santa Claus village is melting in heatwave

Telegraph

2 days ago

The official home town of Father Christmas has been hit with a record-breaking heatwave, stoking fears that wildfires that have swept across Lapland will become more frequent.
The Arctic city of Rovaniemi in northern Finland – usually associated with snow and the winter holidays – has been melting in the hot weather.
Temperatures in Lapland, a region that crowns the tip of Norway and where it snows for seven months a year, have been hitting highs of 31C, more than 10C higher than the seasonal average.
Ville Siiskonen, of the Finnish Meteorological Institute, said that while temperatures above 30C were unusual – 'a once in 10-year event' – the length of the heatwave was exceptional.
'For 15 consecutive days, the daily maximum temperature has exceeded 25C. This is the longest since records began in the early 1960s,' he told The Telegraph.
The previous record was set in 1972 when a heatwave lasted 14 days. The extreme heat is expected to last till early next week.
The highest temperature of the heatwave, 31.7C, was recorded at two locations, Ylitornio and Sodankylä, earlier this week.
However, the hot weather has led to renewed concern over the fast pace of climate change in the Arctic, which is warming up to five times faster than the global average, according to the UN's intergovernmental panel on climate change.
'Due to climate change, these sorts of heatwaves in Lapland are expected to become longer and more intensive over this century,' Mr Siiskonen said.
Emergency services have also been dealing with several dozen fast-spreading wildfires in the wilderness further north of Rovaniemi this week.
Due to the size and remoteness of Lapland, fires often burn for long stretches before firefighters can arrive on the scene. Finnish authorities have warned the population that the risk of wildfires remains high.
In Rovaniemi, schools and nurseries have cancelled some outdoor activities, authorities have told residents to check on their elderly neighbours and health officials are warning people of the need to stay hydrated.
Despite the limited chaos, Sanna Kärkkäinen, managing director of Visit Rovaniemi, said that the heat has not affected the city's most popular tourist destination.
'The weather has certainly surprised locals and tourists,' she told The Telegraph, but the Santa Claus Village, where visitors can meet the man himself, 'remains open seven days a week'.
Lapland's reindeer, with their thick coats, are suffering in the heat and are also being attacked by mosquitoes.
The animals, which mostly roam freely, have been trying to move to higher ground or travel into villages or to the beach in search of relief.
Toivo Koivu, a resident of Rovaniemi who has just finished travelling through southern Europe, said he was shocked to return to such heat.
'We thought that when we would come back to Finland it would be cooler, like normally, but no, it was the same weather as down south,' Mr Koivu told Reuters.
It comes as other parts of Europe this summer have been gripped with heatwaves and wildfires.
In June – which was the hottest June on record globally – authorities in Spain, Portugal, Greece and France were forced to issue extreme heat warnings as temperatures went above 42C.