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STORM

New storm warnings for wind-whipped Sweden

Sweden is bracing for yet another blustery storm, at the same time as the country has yet to fully recover from the chaos caused by storm Dagmar over the Christmas holiday weekend.

New storm warnings for wind-whipped Sweden

Swedish meteorological agency SMHI on Wednesday issued a class 2 warning on the agency’s 3-tiered warning scale for parts of western and southern Sweden.

According to SMHI’s 3-class scale, a class 2 warning mean there is a “danger to the public, widespread material damage, and significant disruptions to important civic operations”.

SMHI also forecast a line of snow showers will sweep across northern Sweden late on Wednesday afternoon.

“It has not started snowing yet, but we are expecting up to two decimeters of snow by the evening in Jämtland, Västernorrland and further north,” said Emil Björck, meteorologist at SMHI, to news agency TT.

Meanwhile, almost 13,000 households are still without electricity after a the stormy weather which blew across Sweden over the long holiday weekend.

It is believed that many will be forced to celebrate New Year’s Eve without electricity too.

Storm Dagmar severely disrupted telecommunications in both fixed and mobile networks, with Medelpad Rescue Services reporting problems with 112 calls to emergency services in Sundsvall in northern Sweden.

Emergency services have been stationed throughout Sundsvall until all connections have been restored.

According to the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket)m, many of Sweden’s railway lines that were closed due to the bad weather has been re-opened and have resumed regular traffic.

The recent storms have also caused concern about the extensive damage to trees around the country, although it remains to be seen exactly how much a clean-up operation may cost.

“We cannot make an assessment yet. It is difficult to get around in the storm-felled areas due to snow and ice and trees that have fallen across the roads,” Camilla Kastner, press officer of the Swedish Forestry Commission (Skogsstyrelsen) told TT.

While the damage is extensive, Kastner said Sweden’s forests haven’t suffered damage on a scale comparable to that suffered during storms Gudrun (2005) and Per (2007).

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