Ever-highest temperature recorded in July

This July was the warmest July ever recorded by Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) in its history, said the Met Office in a press release on Thursday.

In Lapland, the average temperature was five degrees Celsius higher than usual and 2.5-4 degrees Celsius higher than usual in the rest of the country.

The statistics of the Met Office shows that the average temperature for the whole country, 19.6°C, in July was the warmest ever recorded in Finland. The previous all-time record for the average temperature in July, which was in 1941, was broken by about 0.4 degrees Celsius. Comparable data starts from the beginning of the 20th century.

Some municipality-specific records for the average temperature were also broken locally in some areas of western Finland and largely in the northern part of the country.

For instance, at Tähtelä observation station in Sodankylä, the average temperature in July was 20.1 degrees Celsius, which is the warmest in the 111-year history of the station. The previous record, which was made in 1925, was exceeded by up to 1.6 degrees Celsius. The last time July was warmer than this in the country’s southern and eastern parts was in 2010 and, locally in some parts, also in 2011.

In most parts of the country, the month’s average temperatures were 18 to 21 degrees Celsius. Only the northernmost Lapland remained below 18 degrees Celsius. The highest temperature for the month, 33.7°C, was measured in Klemettilä, Vaasa, on the 18th and the lowest temperature, minus 1.7°C, in Naruska, Salla, on the 1st day of July.

There were a total of 27 hot days in July, that is, days when temperatures rose above 25 degrees, in some parts of Finland. As regards the whole country, the last time, there were more hot days exceeding the temperature of 25 degrees Celsius in July was in 2010 when there were a total of 30 hot days. The highest individual temperature measurement was taken at the Kauhava airport where there were a total of 22 hot days exceeding 25 degrees Celsius. This was the highest number of hot days recorded in July at this particular observation station since 1959. Also in Lapland and the Åland Islands, a record number of hot days were broken at individual observation stations.