One spark was all it took. The driver of the forest harvester was working a logging site at Renko in Kanta-Häme. The grapple of the machine hit a stone, throwing a spark that set the underbrush ablaze.

An extended period of hot, dry weather is affecting the harvest outlook and impacting grain growth. Even the wild berry season, which was off to a good start, may be in peril.

Strong winds have created a picturesque wall of ice on the shore of Lake Pyhäjärv. "This often happens at this time of year on the shores of larger lakes and on the sea shore," Huutonen said, adding that there were gale force winds in the area over the weekend.

The conditions for the creation of an ice wall on the lake occur about once a decade, when the ice is thick enough and there are large variations in the daily temperatures. As the ice melts, it creates a chasm, but when it freezes again and expands, it forces the edge of the chasm upwards, creating the 'wall' effect.

An exceptionally warm air current from the southeast has kept days and nights unseasonably mild in southern and central Finland since last week. Meanwhile the north of the country has been shivering with rain and temperatures in the single digits. The highest reading in decades was recorded in Kokemäki, southwest Finland.

A total of 140 crashes and other accidents involving elk have been reported in the last week alone, police said, especially in the area around Pyhäjärvi lake near the town of Säkylä in the southwest of Finland.

After several warm days, lightning bolts struck Finland about 16,000 times on Saturday. By evening, nearly 20,000 customers were without electricity. More trees may be felled as electrical storms move toward the Russian border.

Record wind speeds have been clocked in southern maritime districts as a storm dubbed Aapeli causes widespread power cuts and train delays across Finland.

The Finnish Meteorological Institute has issued a warning of very cold temperatures from Monday afternoon to Wednesday morning, February 26 to 28.

Packed ice crystals have pushed up water levels on the Kokemäki River, soaking some buildings in Huittinen and Pori.

Spring - or rather thermal spring - could be arriving to Finland as early as this week in southern and western areas.