Enter your winter weather observations in the Weather app

By updating the Weather app on your smart phone you will be able to report observations of the following phenomena as well as follow the observations made by other users:

• slippery conditions for pedestrians - are bicycle and pedestrian paths slippery?

• weather induced road traffic disturbance - are weather conditions making it difficult to drive?

• ice thickness - how thick is the ice on areas of water?

• snow depth - how deep is the snow where you are?

• rain/no rain - is there rain, hail, snow or freezing rain?

Your observations will help others travelling in winter conditions

One of the winter season's most long awaited new functions is the possibility to report on slippery weather conditions for pedestrians. The service enables users to check before they go out whether others have found footpaths and cycle routes to be slippery. By communicating your observations you can help others prepare for unexpected slippery conditions. The reported observations will also be immediately available to meteorologists making weather forecasts. The on-duty meteorologists use observations about slippery conditions when producing weather warnings.

A further innovation for the winter season are observations about transport disturbances caused by the weather. Users will be able to use information about disturbances to change the routes they had planned. The meteorologists will be able to use these observations as well as the basis for future forecasts on the impact of the weather. It is hoped that observations on snow and ice depth will help tourists, hikers and other people moving through the countryside.

Summer season variables can still be reported

People's observations have been collected on the Finnish Meteorological Institute's Weather app since July. It is still possible to submit your observations to report wind damage, floods, hail, tornadoes and thunder and lightning.

Over 24,000 observations have been sent using the service up to now. There have been about 9,000 users on the service so far and the most active have made observations daily. During last summer and autumn, the Finnish Meteorological Institute's on-duty meteorologists and researchers received valuable information from public observations which will help develop weather impact and short range forecasting.

Weather app download links to Android and iOS smartphones

Further information:Ismo Karjalainen, Project Manager Tel. 029 539 2106 ismo.karjalainen@fmi.fi