Finland sees mild temperature in Jan

The weather at the beginning of January was cold, but in the middle of the month it turned into milder, according to the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI).

The average temperature in January varied from about +1 degrees Celsius in the southwestern archipelago to about minus 12 degrees Celsius in Central Lapland, said the FMI in a press release on Wednesday.

In most parts of the country, the average temperatures in January were 0.5-1 degrees higher than the average in the reference period 1991-2020.

The highest temperature of the month was 8.8 degrees Celsius, measured in Jomala on 13 of January. The lowest temperature, in turn, was minus 35.7 degrees Celsius, recorded at Enontekiö airport on 8 January.

January was more rainy than usual in the southern part of the country, where rainfall was unusually high in places. In Northern Lapland, too, it was generally more rainy than usual in January. Less rainfall than usual was recorded in Northern Ostrobothnia and Southern Lapland.

In January, the highest rainfall was recorded at Kumpula observation station in Helsinki, where the amount of rainfall was 101.4 mm.

The lowest rainfall was recorded at the Apukka station in Rovaniemi, only 14 mm. The highest daily rainfall, 35.2 mm, was measured at the Parainen Utö observation station on the 29th of the month.

At the end of the month, snow was measured to be from 10 cm in Southwest Finland to over 80 cm in Käsivarsi Lapland. In the southern and central parts of the country, snow was generally 15-30 centimetres higher than usual, and there was an unusually high amount of snow in places. On the other hand, there was less than usual snow in Southern and Central Lapland.

A storm was measured in the sea areas on nine days, which is a higher than typical number of storm days for January.

In south-western sea areas, the wind increased to storm figures on several days, especially in the middle of the month.

On the last weekend of January, the storm Valtteri brought plenty of snow to the southern part of the country.