Winter weather has arrived in some regions of the Scandinavian Peninsula. Snow fell in central Sweden and caused traffic disruptions. There were nearly 100 accidents and collisions. Trucks were sliding on summer tires and drivers were waiting for help for many hours.
It snowed in central Sweden on Monday. The local roads became slippery and there were 92 accidents and collisions in the Bergslagen area – the Swedish Public Radio website reported late on Monday evening. It was added that in 19 cases people were injured. More than 30 accidents were reported in the Värmland region alone, located on the border with Norway.
The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) has issued level 2 snowfall warnings for parts of the country, marked orange.
It snowed in Norway
Snow also fell on Monday evening and overnight from Monday to Tuesday in some regions of Norway. It caused significant traffic disruptions on the E18 motorway, which is located on the border with the Swedish Värmland. There, representatives of the Red Cross and Norwegian People’s Aid (Norsk Folkehjelp) helped drivers whose cars were buried in snow.
– Cars were falling off the road, trucks were standing on the side of the road. People were cold and thirsty. We recorded several cases requiring medical assistance, but they were not serious, said Harald Wisløff from Norwegian People’s Aid in an interview with the Norwegian website NRK.
Part of the highway still closed
On Tuesday morning, the E18 motorway was opened towards Oslo on the Norwegian side, but is still closed towards Sweden. On the Swedish side, the road was closed due to trucks with summer tires parked on the side of the road.
On Kontakt 24 we received photos of snow that fell in the Swedish town of Ludvika in the Dalarna region.
Main photo source: Piotr Tadeusz/Contact 24