Storm Henk in Europe: Snowstorms cause chaos in Scandinavia

Snowstorms which hit Denmark midweek continue to cause disruption, with severe wintry weather making an impact across the entire Nordic region.

A winter storm hit Denmark on Wednesday and parts of the country are still firmly in its grip with large amounts of precipitation and strong winds. Bridges were closed due to the snowstorm, and train and ferry services were cancelled.

Around 900 passengers had to spend the night unplanned on a ferry between Oslo in Norway and Copenhagen. Due to the wind conditions, the ferry was not expected to dock in Copenhagen until 07:00 am on Thursday morning.

Passengers were provided with free food and drink. The ferry was actually due to arrive in Copenhagen on Wednesday morning, but was unable to dock there due to the weather.

However, the Oslo ferry is not the only one affected by the storm: Among other things, several ferry services connecting locations in Denmark to Sweden and Norway have been disrupted.

The reason for the stormy weather is a low pressure system, you may have heard of... Storm Henk. It delivered a lot of snow and squalls to the north-eastern part of Denmark after passing the UK where conditions were felt the hardest on Tuesday evening along the southern English coast.

Further south, temperatures are often above freezing. It is raining heavily there. The rain falls on already saturated soils and is expected to lead to flooding in many areas.

The weather in Denmark will calm down considerably by the weekend under the influence of high pressure. Temperatures will often drop below -10°C. In Swedish Lapland, the temperature has now fallen below -40°C for the second day in a row. The coldest January temperature for 25 years was measured on Wednesday night.