Swedish travel woes refuse to go on holiday

Sunday is expected to be an intense traffic day, as many return home from holiday celebrations, but the weather may cause trouble for travelers along the coast of Norrland, in northern Sweden.

• Snow chaos continues in southern Sweden (25 Dec 10)
• Skåne residents encouraged to stay home (24 Dec 10)
• Christmas transport situation worsens (23 Dec 10)

“We’ve issued a Class 2 warning for Gävleborg’s and Västernorrland’s coastal regions. We’re expecting up to three decimeters of snow in these regions, in combination with fresh winds, or even strong winds by the coast. This could cause big problems on the E4 motorway,” said Linnéa Rehn, SMHI’s on-call meteorologist to news agency TT.

The heavy snowfall over the Gävleborg and Västernorrland regions is expected to continue throughout the day, and won’t diminish until Sunday night.

Travelers in the regions of Jämtland, inland Gävleborg, Uppsala and Stockholm may also experience some trouble getting home on time, as SMHI has issued a Class 1 warning for these areas.

“There could be around a decimeter of snow there, but the snowfall will end during the afternoon,” Linnéa Rehn said.

The situation on southern Swedish roads is decidedly better today than yesterday, however.

“Skåne, which had big problems yesterday, looks fine. Most roads are already navigable, and the roads of Söderslätt and Österlen should be ready by lunchtime,” Beisi Sundin, press officer at the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) said to TT.

She warned, however, that there may still be difficulties on smaller roads east of route 9.

The traffic situation on the Baltic island of Öland also looks brighter today, and western Sweden has no reported traffic problems. It has snowed in Stockholm, and there may be some snow drifts.

The coast of Gävleborg, expected to have severe traffic problems during the day, is calm for now.

“We haven’t had any reported accidents yet, in the morning. The rail traffic hasn’t really got started yet, so there haven’t been any problems there either,” said Beisi Sundin.