The climate in Finland

Climate zone: The northern part of Finland is located in the cold polar zone of the Arctic. The southern areas are in the temperate climate zone.

It won't be really warm up here and given to the water temperatures of 17 degrees maximum you will leave your bathing clothes at home. The warmest and also rainiest greaster region is Mikkeli. The coldest is Lapland. 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 74 years

The hottest temperature measured from 1949 to January 2023 was reported by the Joensuu weather station. In July 2010, the record temperature of 37.2 °C was reported here. The hottest summer from July to September, based on all 28 weather stations in Finland , was recorded in 1949 with an average temperature of 15.7 °C. This average temperature will normally be measured every four to six hours, thus also including the nights. Normally, this value is 13.4 degrees Celsius.

The coldest day in these 74 years was reported by the Sodankyla weather station. Here the temperature dropped to -49.5 °C in January 1999. Sodankyla lies at an altitude of 179 meters above sea level. The coldest winter (January to March) was in 1985 with an average temperature of -13.3 °C. In Finland, it is usual to have about 6.7 degrees more at -6.6 °C for this three-month period.

The most precipitation fell in June 1995. With 8.1 mm per day, the Kankaanpaa Niinisalo weather station recorded the highest monthly average of the last 74 years. Incidentally, the region with the most rainfall for the whole year is around Kankaanpaa Niinisalo. The driest region is near Utsjoki Kevo.

Long-term development of temperatures from 1959 - 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 3 measuring points in order to have comparable data over as long a period as possible.

In the years 1959 to 2022, there were only these 3 weather stations in the whole country, which reported continuous temperature values (Jyvaskyla, Sodankyla, Jokioinen). 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 2018 at 20.2 °C. January 1987 was the coldest month with an average temperature of -21.0 °C.

The average annual temperature was about 2.2 °C in the years after 1959 and about 3.9 °C in the last years before 2022. So in less than 64 years, it has increased by about 1.7 °C. This trend only applies to the selected 3 weather stations in Finland. A considerably more comprehensive evaluation of global warming has been provided separately.

Data basis and methodology

The data from the individual measuring stations are based on the archives of the German Weather Service, individual values averaged and supplemented by own elements. In order to determine a representative national average, average values were first calculated for each part of the country, which were then summarized at the national level. Thus, if a disproportionate number of weather stations are located in a small area, their number does not affect the national average. There are 29 stations in Finland itself. In 7 cases, neighboring but nearby weather stations were also used to obtain more accurate values.