Finland sees large temperature fluctuations in April

Finland experienced large temperature fluctuations in April as month´s highest temperature was recorded 20.8 degrees Celsius while lowest temperature was minus 34.3 degrees Celsius, according to the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI).

April began as exceptionally warm in the south. After the middle of the month, however, most parts of the country experienced an exceptionally cold period, as temperatures remained below zero even during the day, with the exception of the southern coast.

At the end of the month, temperatures returned to more typical levels of the season, as temperatures in the south rose to around 20 degrees Celsius and in the north to +5 degrees Celsius.

According to FMI, the average temperature in April was mostly one to two degrees colder than usual; in the northern part of the country, the month was unusually cool in places.

The average temperature in April varied from about +3 degrees on the southern coast to about minus 6 degrees in the northwest of Finnish Lapland.

The month's highest temperature, 20.8 degrees Celsius, was measured on 29 April at Hyvinkäänkylä, Hyvinkää and Mikkeli airport observation stations.

The lowest temperature of the month, minus 34.3 degrees, was measured on 3 April at the Tulppio observation station in Savukoski.

April’s precipitation levels were higher than usual in most of the country. In the southern and central parts of the country, as well as in North Ostrobothnia and Kainuu, precipitation levels were exceptionally high in places, and station-specific precipitation records for April were also broken in the east.

Rainfall was largely 40–80 millimetres; mainly only in Northern Lapland rainfall was clearly lower than this, with around 20 millimetres.

The highest precipitation was recorded at the Kumpula observation station in Helsinki (95.8 mm) and the lowest was recorded in Kilpisjärvi Village Centre in Enontekiö (16 mm).

At the end of the month, there was a snow cover in Kainuu, Koillismaa and Lapland. The snow depth varied mainly between 30 and 80 centimetres. The greatest amount of snow on the morning of the last day of the month was at the Kenttärova observation station in Kittilä, 105 centimetres.

In April, the sun shone unusually little in places, even exceptionally little in places in the south. There were about 100–150 sunshine hours in most parts of the country, but in the places in the east, this amount was only over 80 hours. In some places, the sun shone 50–100 hours less than on average.

The most hours of sunshine were recorded at the Korsnäs Bredskäret observation station, totalling 167 hours.

The thunder season also started at the beginning of the month, when a total of approximately 600 lightning bolts were observed in the southern and central parts of the country and in Kainuu. On the 10th, about 700 lightning strikes were recorded in Ostrobothnia and North Ostrobothnia.