Electricity consumption reached record levels on Wednesday morning as temperatures in Oulu plummeted to below – 30. Throughout the country 14,970 megawatts of electricity were consumed according to the electricity operator Fingrid. The previous record was set in January last year.

Fingrid have begun using its power reserves due to the high levels of consumption. After a slow beginning, Finland’s winter has finally hit in, with a temperature of -30 in Oulu early on Wednesday morning and then again this morning. In Helsinki, at the same time, it was -20 and in Tampere it was -27. The record low temperature so far this winter has been in Naruska in Eastern Finnish Lapland which measured a low of -39 last Tuesday. 

According to Helsingin Sanomat, these lows are nowhere near as biting as Finland’s lowest ever recorded temperature. This record was set in Kittilä, Western Lapland, in January 1999 when a low of -51.5 reached. In the recent past, Oulu’s temperature has dropped as low as -41.5.

This, and even the Lapland record, is nothing like as extreme as the temperatures in Oymyakon, in Russia’s far Eastern Republic of Sakha. This village of 800 reached a low of -71.2 in January 1926. Only Antarctica – at just above -90 – has reported lower temperatures. Oymyakon regularly records temperatures of below -60, the point at which petrol freezes, meaning that is becomes extremely dangerous to stall your car while driving in the countryside.      

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