Country experiences colder Feb than usual

February was colder than usual, but station-specific temperature records were broken right at the end of the month, said the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) in a press release on Wednesday.

In terms of temperature, the whole winter from December to February was about one degree Celsius milder than usual in nearly all of the country.

December was the mildest of the winter months.

According to the statistics of the FMI, February was 1–4 degrees colder than usual in the whole country.

The average temperature varied between minus 5 and minus 10 degrees Celsius in the southern and western parts of the country, while in the southwestern archipelago it was about minus 3 degrees.

In the eastern and northern parts of the country, the average temperature was between minus 10 and minus 15 degrees Celsius.

Throughout February, the temperature mainly remained below freezing in most parts of the country.

The lowest temperature of the month, minus 39.7 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Kevojärvi in Utsjoki on 20 February. The highest temperature of the month, +9.8 degrees Celsius, was measured on 25 February at Mariehamn Airport and Jomalaby in Jomala.

At the end of the month, snow depth varied from 5–20 centimetres on the southern and southwestern coast to 40–80 centimetres in the central and northern parts of the country.

Snow depth was higher than usual in Central Finland, whereas the southern parts of the country had either a normal amount or less snow than on average. Snow depth in Northern Lapland was even unusually low in places.