Winter will be putting in an appearance this week in southern and western parts of the country. While Tuesday will still be largely dry, a band of precipitation will start making its way eastwards over Finland on Wednesday.

According to Yle meteorologist Kerttu Kotakorpi, an incoming system is likely to dump up to 10 centimetres of snow and sleet over western and southern Finland starting Wednesday night. The system will discharge the last remnants of precipitation during the day on Thursday.

"By midnight it will snow west of the Kokkola-Helsinki axis. The precipitation will make for significantly poorer driving conditions," Kotakorpi added.

To add insult to injury, freezing winds will also pick up on Wednesday. The Finnish Meteorological Institute FMI has issued winds warnings for all sea areas. Kotakorpi said that the wind will also make itself felt over land, occasionally gusting at speed of between 14 and 17 metres per second.

"The wind chill will make conditions feel even colder."

The Yle weather watcher said however that the snow forecast is still somewhat uncertain.

Colder than usual in the near future

Chilly winds expected this week mean that temperatures will be five degrees colder than the average for this time of year. On Wednesday, the forecast is for highs around zero degrees throughout the country, with overnight lows dropping below freezing.

"On Thursday temperatures in the south and west will be on the plus side and below freezing elsewhere."

If conditions are snowy on Thursday, they ground cover won’t melt right away due to the cool daytime temperatures.

"If people have not yet put on the winter tyres, now would be the time to do it," Ketakorpi concluded.