A residential area in Gävle covered in water on Wednesday.
© Fredrik SandbergA residential area in Gävle covered in water on Wednesday.
People in Gävle are being urged to stay inside after double that of one month's worth of rain fell in just the space of a few hours.

Just before 3am on Wednesday, fire and rescue services in the Gävle area sent out an official warning, urging people to stay at home due to heavy rain and flooding.

The warning was lifted later in the morning, but people were still told to be cautious after landslides were reported and roads caved in.

"Police are therefore urging residents of the Gävleborg region not to head out on the roads unless they have to. Police are also urging travellers not to come to Gävleborg," read a statement on the regional police authority's website on Wednesday.


Several buildings and roads were flooded after 140 millimetres of rain came down in the east coast city between 8pm on Tuesday and 4am on Wednesday, weather agency SMHI told the TT newswire. Normally, around 70 millimetres fall over the whole month of August.

By 10am, SMHI said 161.6 millimetres of rain had come down, breaking Gävle's previous rain record.

A flooded street in Gävle.
© Pernilla WahlmanA flooded street in Gävle.
Schools had been set to open in Gävle on Wednesday, but were closed and students were sent home due to the weather conditions. Preschools remained open with limited staffing.

No trains were running between Borlänge and Falun in the Dalarna region on Wednesday morning.

A class-two weather warning for heavy rain remained in place for the Gävleborg and Dalarna regions on Wednesday, and was expected to be in place until the afternoon.

Class-one warnings (the least serious on a scale from one to three) were in place in Västernorrland, eastern Västerbotten, Uppsala, Västmanland and Jämtland.

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