The climate in Estonia

Climate zone: Moderate zone of the northern hemisphere

The climate in Estonia is quite varied, but generally does not offer extreme climate conditions. It is cold and wet with some nice summer months. It won't be really warm up here and given to the water temperatures of 16 degrees maximum you will leave your bathing clothes at home. The warmest and rainiest part of the country is Tartu. The coldest is Harju. Due to the warmer temperatures, the best time for traveling is from May to September. Less attractive are the cold months from November to March.

Temperature records of the last 66 years

The hottest temperature measured from 1957 to January 2023 was reported by the Tallinn Harku weather station. In July 2018, the record temperature of 34.2 °C was reported here. The hottest summer from July to September, based on all 3 weather stations in Estonia , was recorded in 2018 with an average temperature of 17.7 °C. This average temperature will normally be measured every four to six hours, thus also including the nights. Normally, this value is 15.3 degrees Celsius. The average maximum daily temperature at that time was 21.4 °C.

The coldest day in these 66 years was reported by the Tallinn Harku weather station. Here the temperature dropped to -27.3 °C in February 2012. Tallinn Harku lies at an altitude of 34 meters above sea level. The coldest winter (January to March) was in 1963 with an average temperature of -8.6 °C. In Estonia, it is usual to have about 6.3 degrees more at -2.3 °C for this three-month period.

The most precipitation fell in July 2004. With 8.5 mm per day, the Tallinn Harku weather station recorded the highest monthly average of the last 66 years.

Long-term development of temperatures from 1991 - 2022

In contrast to single record values, long-term development cannot simply be brought about by all weather stations in the country. Both the number and the locations are constantly changing. An average value would give a distorted result. If several measuring stations in particularly cold mountain or coastal regions are added in one year, the average would decrease as a result of this alone. If a station fails during the summer or winter months, it does not provide any values and distorts the average again. The subsequent long-term development was therefore reduced to only 2 measuring points in order to have comparable data over as long a period as possible.

In the years 1991 to 2022, there were only these 2 weather stations in the whole country, which reported continuous temperature values (Tallinn Harku, Tartu Toravere). From these weather reports, we have created a long-term development that shows the monthly average temperatures. The hottest month in this entire period was July 2010 at 22.1 °C. January 2010 was the coldest month with an average temperature of -12.4 °C.

The average annual temperature was about 5.9 °C in the years after 1991 and about 7.2 °C in the last years before 2022. So in less than 32 years, it has increased by about 1.4 °C. This trend only applies to the selected 2 weather stations in Estonia. A considerably more comprehensive evaluation of global warming has been provided separately.



Data basis: German Weather Service, individual values averaged and supplemented by own elements.