July sees large weather fluctuations

The average temperature in July varied from about 12 degrees Celsius in the north of Finnish Lapland to about 17 degrees in the south and south-west of the country, according to the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI).

The average temperature of the month was below the long-term average in nearly all parts of the country, said a FMI press release on Tuesday.

The lowest average temperatures were recorded in eastern Finland, where the monthly average temperature was at most around 2–3 degrees below the long-term average, and in northern Finland, where the average temperature remained 1–2 degrees below the long-term average. Deviations in the southern and western parts of the country were smaller, and in many places the temperature was very close to the long-term average.

In July, the temperature varied greatly. In the beginning of the month, weather was quite cold and with the exception of the first day of July the temperature remained clearly below the 25-degree limit past the middle of the month.

The lowest temperature in July, -1.7 degrees, was measured at Ylivieska airport on the night before 5 July. There were many cold nights with the temperature below zero in July. The greatest number of these cold nights was seven, reported Alajärvi from the observation station in Möksy.

The same station reported a greater number of cold nights in 1975 when the temperature dipped below freezing on nine nights.

After mid-July the weather became gradually warmer, and during the last weekend of the month the temperature was even exceptionally high.

Station-specific warm temperature records were broken first in Ylitornio and Pello on 26 July and then in the southern parts of the country on 28 July. The month's highest temperature, 33.7 degrees Celsius, was recorded in Emäsalo, Porvoo on 28 July. This is the new warm temperature record of the observation station. On the same day, the station-specific warm temperature record was also broken in Kaisaniemi, Helsinki, which is the longest-running observation station in Finland. Temperatures have been recorded in Kaisaniemi since 1844. The new record for Kaisaniemi, 33.2 degrees, exceeds the previous record from 1945 by 1.6 degrees.