Finnish winter

At the end of October we all thought we just saw the beginning of a long winter. We had a huge snowfall, over 20 cm in 24 hours, which messed up the entire city. We also got stuck in the snow in the parking lot. Buses were stuck, everything seemed to be in chaos. And then a heat wave came maybe a couple of weeks later and for days on end the temperature would not go below +4C. The snow started melting, and then it started raining and by the end of November there was absolutely no sign of any snow whatsoever. Which is quite unusual for Finland. The next snow came the Monday before christmas - around 1 cm... In proper winter Finns go cross country skiing in the woods or on the frozen lakes, go skating on the free skating rinks all over the place, they even drive their cars on the frozen lakes. I don't think anyone ventured with their cars onto the lakes this winter, unless it was on a ferry... Apparently there is hardly any snow in Lapland, too. Which is utterly unpleasant for all the tourists who were hoping to see some real snow while visiting Joulupukki (Santa) in Rovaniemi. I guess the global warming really kicked in... :(