Northern Europe's warm winter stresses some

Both Finland and Sweden have left most of their icebreakers in port.

Finland's coasts are clear of ice up to 350 miles north of Helsinki, said Jouni Vainio from the Finnish Institute of Marine Research. "It's most unusual because now the whole sea should be frozen along the Finnish coast."

Railway traffic is also being helped by the warmth. More than 90 percent of all trains this winter have been on time or less than five minutes late, according to the Finnish state railway, VR.

"Hard frosts and heavy blizzards have always been a bane of rail traffic. This winter has been punctuated by their absence," VR spokesman Herbert Mannerstrom said.

For winter sports enthusiasts, the green winter has been a nightmare. Small ski resorts around Stockholm never opened, and skating enthusiasts waited in vain for ice to form on the waterways surrounding the Swedish capital.

"There's not one millimeter of ice," said Anders Tysk, organizer of the annual Vikingarannet ice-skating race on Lake Malaren. After postponing the race several weekends, he had to tell 500 registered participants on Monday there would be no race this year.

"It's the first time we've canceled since we introduced flexible dates in 2003," he said.

While Europe's north has been unseasonably warm, the west has been sunny and dry.

The French weather service, Meteo France, announced in a preliminary report Friday that France had not had such a sunny winter since 1950.

In Portugal, rainfall from September to January was the lowest for 91 years.

The cold, however, is making a late comeback in some areas.

All of Finland is blanketed in snow, and forecasts predict at least another week of wintry weather with heavy blizzards and frost. That news delighted a group of six-grade boys traveling by train for a snowboard outing Tuesday with their teacher in Helsinki.

"It's been a long time coming. It's only the second time this year that we've been able to get out there," said 13-year-old Timo, who only gave his first name.

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