Several parts of Southern Finland, including the capital city region, witnessed the first snow of the season on Monday evening.

Light flurries spread to most areas in the south, with the exception of the coast.

Tuesday morning brought significant amounts of snowfall to Southern Finland, but coastal areas remained drier for a time, according to the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

Forecasts suggest that west Uusimaa, Hämeenlinna and Lahti will see the highest concentration of snow on Tuesday. Northern parts of Central Finland are also expected to be blanketed in white by Wednesday morning.

The municipalities of Somero and Hämeenlinna received 9 centimetres of snow each on Monday, while Salo saw 8 centimetres. However, snowfall in the Uusimaa region was inconsistent.

While Nuuksio in Espoo received 7 centimetres of the white stuff and Lohja recorded 6 centimetres, the snow reached 2 centimetres at Kumpula station in Helsinki and the recording stood at zero in Tapiola, Espoo.

"We can consider it the first snow of the season when the ground is covered by more than one centimetre of snow measured at 8 am," Petri Hoppula, a meteorologist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute explained.

Last year, the Helsinki Metropolitan area received its first official snow cover only at the end of December.

While more flurries are expected for Southern Finland, including Uusimaa, on Tuesday, the wintry weather will likely give way to warmer temperatures on Wednesday as the mercury is set to rise above zero.

Freezing conditions continue in Northern Finland; however, with the municipality of Utsjoki breaking this year's cold weather record with a temperature of -29? on Tuesday.