Strong thunderstorms hit southern Finland and the province of Ãƒâ€¦land in the early afternoon on Thursday. Heavy rains have hindered traffic on the roads in some areas of Helsinki and Vantaa.
Some 1,600 lightning strikes were recorded in southern Finland by 1pm, according to the Finnish Meteorological Institute. A number of places have also seen heavy rainsÃ¢â‚¬â€with 18mm rain per hour measured at Helsinki-Vantaa airport, for example.
A couple of thousand residents of Kirkkonummi just west of Helsinki were left without electricity for a time. The outages have been fixed since. Energy company Fortum says that the problems were due to lightning, rather than trees falling on power lines.
Thunderstorms will persist in the south for the entire day, according to the Finnish Meteorological Institute. Thunder and lightning might be accompanied by gust of winds exceeding 15 m/s.