Finland,
in the far north of Europe and partially in the Arctic Circle, has borders with
Sweden, Russia and Norway,
and a coast on the Gulf of Finland. Its
extreme northerly position and proximity to the Arctic
Sea and Gulf of
Finland dictate its cool climate. The north of Finland
receives a cool, humid, semi-continental climate, and the south receives a
northern temperate climate. Summers in Finland are relatively short and
mild with two months of literally endless daylight. This gives rise to Finland’s famous
midnight sun. Winters are long and bitterly cold seeing heavy snow and months
of darkness often streaked with the majestic Northern Lights or Aurora
Borealis. No matter what time of year, weather in Finland is predictably
unpredictable, seeing drastic changes in conditions within moments. The north
of Finland, Lapland Province,
is partially inside the Arctic Circle and is
usually about five degrees colder than the south.
Finland
is not as cold as other regions at similar latitudes as it is in the path of
the Gulf Stream and is close to the Atlantic Ocean.
The Scandinavian Mountains
temper rainfall and storms coming in from the Atlantic
Ocean.
Summer in Finland
sees average high temperatures in the low 20s during the peak months of July
and August, though occasionally tropical winds blow in hotter weather and
temperatures can get into the 30s. Lapland usually sees temperatures around
20°C With the onset of climate change, Finland is seeing warmer summers
every year. From the end of May to the beginning of August Finland
experiences constant daylight, though it does get darker in the south during
night hours. The light level at these times resembles twilight. In Lapland the sun does not even dip below the horizon from
May 17th till July 27th. In southern Lapland
the weather is typically sunny for around ten hours a day though sometimes it
can be sunny for as long as nineteen hours. In the north it is possible to
experience twenty-four hours of blazing sunshine. Coastal regions are always
the sunniest with the sea breeze holding the clouds inland until late
afternoon. Early summer is dry but July and August see brief but violent
thunderstorms.
In Lapland Autumn sets in
at the end of August. The winds pick up, the first frosts arrive and the
landscape flushes into brilliant golds and reds. In the south the temperature
remains pleasant till mid September after which it repeats the pattern seen in Lapland. In Lapland in September, and in the rest of Finland in
October, snow begins to fall. There are usually a number of snowfalls that do
not settle before snow cover becomes permanent. By the beginning of October
temperatures have dropped to around 10°C in southern Finland
and 5°C in Lapland. This drops to 5°C in
southern Finland and 0°C in Lapland by the end of the month. November sees winter
storms which often start as blizzards in the north which turns to rain as the
storms move further south. Day and night patterns start normalising after July
and by September in Helsinki
sunrise occurs around 6.15 am and sunset falls around 8.30 pm. Autumn is the
windiest time of year and the period sees four days with storm-force winds on
average.
Winter descends on Finland in quite a hurry.
Temperatures plummet; even in Helsinki
the average high temperature drops below freezing from December to March, with
an average low of -10°C in January and February. Rovaniemi, in southern Lapland, regularly sees average temperatures around
-20°C. By November north and east Finland are already covered in
permanent snow. Central Lapland sees permanent
snow cover from mid October. In southern Finland the permanent snow does not
set in till Christmastime. Coastal regions and the south-western archipelago
have milder temperatures and snow only stays from January to March. Snow cover
is at its deepest in March. Snow in southern regions gets between ten and
thirty centimetres while Lapland sees depths
between sixty and one-hundred centimetres. On mild days rain can fall causing
dangerous, icy driving conditions. Daylight hours steadily decrease lasting for
only six hours in the south in the dead of winter. In Lapland
the sun stays below the horizon and night lasts for all of December until mid
January. Wintertime is the most likely period in which to spot the Northern
Lights. In Lapland they appear around
two-hundred times a year on clear nights. They are visible far south and appear
over Helsinki
as many as twenty times a year in areas of low light pollution.
The short springtime begins in March and sees clear sunny
days with light winds. The fine weather can sometimes be interrupted by sudden
cold spells bringing snow and sleet as late as May. Rainfall is minimal
throughout spring months. As the sun returns and climbs higher above the
horizon, the days begin to heat up; but night times often remain very cold. In Lapland temperatures still drop down to -30°C in March
and -20°C in April. In southern Finland
average highs rise rapidly from 0°C in March to 7°C in April and 15°C in May. Snow
melts very quickly from March, though hindered by the cold nights which often
freeze the meltwater. All snow has melted in coastal regions by April, central
and southern Finland are
snow-free sometime between April and May; Lapland
and forested regions remain under their cold covers as late as the end of May.
Climate change is having a marked effect on Finland. Winters are shortening and getting milder; summers are getting hotter. In 2006 British holiday-makers intent on a white Christmas were confronted with slush in Rovaniemi, Lapland's capital, instead of the crisp white snow typical of past winters.
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