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More snow to hit Sweden after temperatures drop to new record cold

TT/The Local
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More snow to hit Sweden after temperatures drop to new record cold
Sweden's national weather agency has issued a warning for heavy snow. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

The lowest temperature of the winter season was recorded early on Thursday and more harsh winter weather is on its way, national weather agency SMHI has warned.

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At the weather station in Nikkaluokta in the far north of Sweden, the mercury dropped to a frigid -39.5C, setting the record for the lowest temperature of the 2018/19 winter season to date. 
 
This, of course, is not unusual given the weather station's location within the Arctic Circle. 
 
"When it is clear and windless, it can drop to very low temperatures up in Norrland," meteorologist Moa Hallberg said. 
 
While the rest of Sweden isn't as cold as up north, residents were told to brace for severe winter conditions.
 
 
SMHI issued a Class 1 warning (the lowest category on a scale of one to three) on Thursday, saying that several parts of the country will be hit with strong winds and heavy snow. Affected areas include those along the northern Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland, the Uppland coast, Stockholm County and coastal areas within Gävleborg County. 
 
"During Friday and Saturday, there may be large amounts of snow along the southern Norrland coast, perhaps as much as ten centimetres," Hallberg said. 
 
A Class 1 warning was also issued on Thursday for strong winds along Sweden's west coast, but that was expected to be lifted later in the evening. 
 
Sweden's winter warnings come as large swaths of North America are experiencing extremely low temperatures. The polar vortex affecting the US and Canada is not expected to have much of an impact on Sweden however, Hallberg said. 
 
"Sometimes these polar vortexes split up, and it could mean that Sweden could get a bit cold. But it depends on how the air divides and where it ends up," she said. 
 
Even if the extreme cold does make it to Sweden, the Nordic country has certainly seen similar situations before. The coldest recorded temperature in Sweden was -52.6C in the central Lapland mountains in February 1966. 

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