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WEATHER

Freezing rain, ice and snow due to hit Sweden

Much of Sweden has experienced relatively tame weather by Nordic winter standards in recent days, but that’s all about to change as the country’s national forecaster warns that ice, snow and even ‘freezing rain’ could be on the horizon.

Freezing rain, ice and snow due to hit Sweden
It's time to wrap up again. Photo: Anders Wiklund / TT

A class-one weather warning (the least serious kind on a scale from one to three) has been issued by forecaster SMHI highlighting sudden ice, as rain puddles started to freeze after a drop in temperatures over the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Areas in Götaland in the south, Svealand in central Sweden, and southern Norrland in the north could all potentially be affected.

Rainfall due to move in over the course of Wednesday could make the frozen roads particularly treacherous, and in the north, so-called 'freezing rain' has even been predicted. That is a weather phenomenon where rain falls despite freezing surface temperatures, leading to the rain freezing into ice once it reaches the ground.

Milder air will move in towards the end of the week, but that may simply mean one form of winter weather gives way to another: in all but the southernmost regions of Sweden there is the potential for a snowy weekend and start to next week.

While there has not yet been anything close to a repeat of the record snowfall that descended on parts of the country at the start of November, ice has been a bigger problem for Swedes in recent weeks. Last week southern roads froze up in chilly temperatures and caused a string of car accidents.