Storm Winds Close Ski Resorts in the North

Dangerously strong winds have partly closed ski resorts in northern Finland, much to the disappointment of holidaymakers. On Thursday 29 slopes out of 45 in the popular ski resort of Levi, in Kittilä, were closed.

source: The unusually strong winds – over 30 m/s in places - could not come at a more inconvenient time for Lapland’s ski resorts. At peak holiday season most of the slopes at Levi were closed for a whole day on Thursday as it was not safe to operate all of the resort's gondola lifts. At Pyhä half of all lifts were not operating on Thursday.

"Wind is rarely so strong that it swings our gondola lifts like today," says Tarja Nikkinen, Head of Marketing at Levi Ski Resort.

Holidaymakers can only rue their bad luck as ski resorts do not refund unused lift passes due to weather conditions.

The Meteorological Institute says conditions for skiing are expected to improve by Saturday as the winds ease off.