Extreme cold sweeps Nordic nations, as floods hit further south

Temperatures fell below minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Nordic region for a second day in a row Wednesday, with the coldest January temperature recorded in Sweden in 25 years.

In Kvikkjokk-Årrenjarka in Swedish Lapland, the mercury dropped to minus 43.6 C (minus 46.5 F), the coldest temperature in the country in January since 1999, Sweden's TT news agency reported.

On Tuesday, Nikkaluokta, a village inhabited by indigenous Sami people in northern Sweden, recorded a temperature of minus 41.6 C (minus 42.8 F). The village is in Lapland, which stretches from northern parts of Norway through Sweden and Finland to Russia.

Ida Dahlström of the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute said northern Sweden had overnight temperatures of minus 25–35 C (minus 13-31 F) “and the cold seems to stay there for the rest of the week,” TT reported.

The coldest Swedish temperature in January — minus 49 C (minus 56 F) — was recorded on Jan 27, 1999, in the town of Karesuando near the Finnish border.

The weather -– cold with snow and gale-force winds -- disrupted transportation throughout the Nordic region, with several bridges closed and some train and ferry services suspended. Several schools in Scandinavia were closed.

In Finland, the weather is forecast to remain cold across the nation with temperatures down to minus 35 C (minus 31 F) in the north, at least until Sunday.

Police across most of Denmark urged motorists on Wednesday to avoid unnecessary trips as wind and snow battered the northern and western parts of the country.

The Danish Meteorological Institute said there was a risk of snowy and icy roads in large parts of the country and issued an orange warning -– its second highest -- for strong rains in the south, which is battling flooding.

Further south, parts of Germany -- where the weather has been mild and wet -- were also grappling with flooding, which could be aggravated by new rain in the worst-affected northwestern state of Lower Saxony.

Police near the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven said strong winds may have played a role in the death of a 75-year-old man who fell off his bicycle late Tuesday as high winds lashed much of the Netherlands.

Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin, Mike Corder in Amsterdam and Jari Tanner in Helsinki contributed to this report.