A mild November ended in a blizzard

November was milder than average in the whole country. The highest temperature anomaly was in Lapland, where November was locally over four degrees warmer than average.

Photo: Antonin Halas

The highest temperature of 9.4 °C was recorded at Jomalaby on the 15th. The lowest temperature of -30.0 °C was recorded at Kittilä on the 30th of November.

Winds were mainly from the south and west except for the last days when the large scale weather pattern changed dramatically. A blizzard brought over 20 cm of snow to the southern coastline. Locally the two-day accumulations were over 40 cm. The storm was one of the strongest in the Gulf of Finland with 10-minute mean wind speeds at 29 m/s. Inland gusts were slightly above 20 m/s which are typical for winter storms. However the unusual wind direction (NE) caused tree damages and left tens of thousands of households without power. The maximum significant wave height of 5.2 meters offshore of Helsinki tied with the local record from 2001.The monthly precipitation sum ranged from below 40 millimeters in West-Finland to above 70 millimeters in parts of Lapland and the southern coast.

A warm autumn

Autumn was warmer than average in the whole country. Northern Lapland and eastern parts of Finland had the highest anomaly, close to two degrees Celsius. Autumn was also wetter than usual. West-Finland as well as Lapland received locally over 1.5 times the average precipitation. Some of these areas measured over 300 millimeters and local seasonal precipitation records were broken.

Additional information:

Weather statistics from the Climate Service, tel. 0600 1 0601 (€3.98/min. + local network charge)Weather forecasts from the meteorologist on duty, 24 hours a day, tel. 0600 1 0600 (€3.98/min. + local network charge)

Weather statistics for September (in Finnish): http://ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/marraskuu

The Finnish Meteorological Institute’s weather application for iPhone and Android phones:http://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/smartphones