Finland sees warmer April than usual

Warm weather dominated in Southern and Northern Finland in April, whereas the middle of the country was cooler, according to the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI).

In some places the sun shone up to 100 hours more than on average in April, said FMI in a press release on Monday.

The average temperature in April was about one degree Celsius warmer than usual in the south and the north, and in some places it was exceptionally warm.

On the other hand, April was normal or slightly colder than usual in the middle part of the country. The average temperature in April varied from about minus 2 degrees in north-west arm of Finnish Lapland to plus 6 degrees along the country’s southern coast.

The month began and ended in colder weather than usual, while around the month’s midway mark it was unusually warm in some places on the southwest of the country and in eastern Lapland.

The month's highest temperature, 21.0 degrees Celsius, was measured on 26 April at the Lepola and airport observation station in Lappeenranta.

The lowest temperature of the month, minus 25,9 degrees Celsius, was measured on 3 April at the Tulppio observation station in Savukoski.

Precipitation this April was lower than usual in the southern and eastern parts of the country and in Lapland.

The precipitation levels in these areas were in many places only 10-30 millimetres, which occurs on average once every 5-10 years.

On the other hand, in Ostrobothnia’s municipalities and Kainuu it rained one and a half times or even twice as much as usual. The monthly overall precipitation in these areas was generally 30-60 millimetres.

Of the observation stations, the most precipitation was recorded in Halsua, 61.3 mm, and the least in Itätulli, Uusikaupunki, 8.1 mm.

At the end of the month, there was a snow cover in Kainuu, Koillismaa and Lapland. The snow depth varied above and below 50 centimetres. The greatest amount of snow on the morning of the last day of the month was at the Kenttärova observation station in Kittilä, 96 centimetres.

The sun shone exceptionally much in April. In many places, the sun was out for nearly 300 hours, whereas the typical amount for April is about 100 hours less.

The most hours of sunshine were recorded at the Kotka Rankki observation station, totalling 306.2 hours. This is the second highest April value in the station’s measurement history. For example, station-specific records for hours of sunshine were broken at Helsinki-Vantaa, in Jokioinen, Rovaniemi and Sodankylä this April.