Climate change | Snowy winters are becoming rare, especially in southern Finland: “Human activity both increases and decreases the amount of snow”

Today there has been enough snow in the winter. Just a couple of days ago, people living in Western and Southern Finland found themselves in the middle of a “snow inferno”.

According to data from Foreca there is currently about 12–72 centimeters of snow in all of Finland. The most snow seems to be in Lapland, Kainuu and North Karelia.

In the future, however, less rain will come as snow than at present, and the amount of snow has decreased dramatically over the past 40 years, says a research professor at the Finnish Meteorological Institute Jouni Pulliainen for STT. The reason for this is man-made emissions.

“The change is human-caused and will probably accelerate in the future,” says Pulliainen.

Chubby girl deals with the effects of human activity on the amount of snow in the latest issue of Nature magazine in his article. He refers in the text to Alexander Gottlieb and Justin Mankin for researchwhich is published in the same issue of the magazine.

In the study, one of the significant sources has been climate data collected by satellite measurements of the Finnish Meteorological Institute on how the Earth's snow cover has developed over the past 40 years. According to research, south of the 60th degree, human activities and emissions have reduced the amount of snow compared to what it would otherwise be, Pulliainen says.

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“Human activity both increases and decreases the amount of snow.”

Helsinki is located approximately at the 60th parallel. Human activity therefore affects the snow situation the most in countries that are further south than Finland. According to the study, the increase in winter temperatures has had no effect when average temperatures have remained at eight degrees below zero or colder.

According to Pulliainen, the amount of snow in Finland has decreased by tens of percent in recent decades. This can be seen in the fact that there have been many snowless winters in the south. The lack of snow is especially visible in coastal areas in March, as the snow is usually at its thickest in March. In the north, the change has been smaller.

“Finland is such a long country that there is a difference between the south and the north,” says Pulliainen.

It may well be that winters in northern Finland will become even more snowy in the future. According to Pulliainen, the amount of snow in Eastern Siberia has increased probably because the arctic sea ice has decreased and there is more open water.

“Human activity both increases and decreases the amount of snow.”

When the amount of snow decreases, the water flowing in the rivers also decreases, especially in spring and early summer. This is a big problem, as water melting from snow is the main source of fresh water in most of the northern hemisphere. According to Pulliainen, Finns are lucky that the biggest changes will happen in continental Europe. The effects of human activity become more visible the further south you go.

When the water in rivers decreases in Europe and North America, it causes problems for hundreds of millions of people. In the future, for example, there will probably be less water in the Rhine and Danube.

“A radical reduction of water is possible, and it has actually already been seen,” says Pulliainen.

North of the 60th degree, human influence probably increases the river flows, because in the north the temperatures stay below freezing in winter.

According to Pulliainen, changes in the amount of snow directly affect ecosystems. The efficiency of carbon sinks decreases, and the risk of drought and forest fires also increases in Finland and Sweden. However, he says, stopping the change is very difficult, if not impossible.

“Even if the burning of coal and oil were stopped immediately, development will not stop.”

So what would Pulliainen say to people who think that a snowy winter means that the climate is not warming?

“Years are not brothers to each other. You can see the change when you look at a longer time period. This can be difficult to understand because the change fades away in the background.”