Record June temperatures and heavy rainfall in northern Finland

“The greatest deviations were observed in Lapland, where the highest ever average June temperatures were observed at several stations with up to a 4 C difference compared to the average of the 1991–2020 reference period,” the institute said in a statement this week. 

Overall, northern Finland’s average temperature varied between 11C and 16 C. In other areas of the country, the variation was 14.5–18 C.

At the start of June, Finland experienced widespread heat, with temperatures hitting at least 25.1°C in many places.

Hot days 

Finns got a brief break from the heat in the middle of June before getting hit by another long heatwave at the end of the month.

Usually, there are about eight hot days in June, but this year, there were 14 days with temperatures over 25.1 C. On four of those days, it topped 30 degrees.

Warm early summer in Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

Savilahti, a district near the eastern city of Kuopio, recorded the hottest day in June, reaching a high of 31.4C along with Asemantaus in Heinola, situated in the southern part of the country, on the 28th.

On the flip side, the coldest temperature was -0.7 C at Ylivieska Airport in the western part of the country on the 5th, making it the coldest June temperature in Finland since 1961.

Heavy precipitation in North

In addition to high temperatures, several regions of Finland also got walloped by rain in June.

The western and northern regions saw unusually high amounts of rain, while the southern coast had less rain than usual. There were more rainy days than normal in the north and west.

This story is posted on the Barents Observer as part of Eye on the Arctic, a collaborative partnership between public and private circumpolar media organizations.