Warm temperature records broken in July

According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute's statistics, 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.

Also some municipality-specific records for the average temperature were broken locally in some areas of western Finland and largely in the northern part of the country. For instance, at the Tähtelä observation station in Sodankylä, the average temperature in July was 20.1 degrees Celsius, which is the warmest during the 111-year history of the observation station. The previous record, which was from 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 Lapland, the average temperature for July was around five degrees Celsius higher than usual and 2.5–4 degrees Celsius higher in the rest of the country. In most of the country, the month's average temperatures were 18–21 degrees Celsius. Only the very 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, -1.7°C, in Naruska, Salla, on the 1st.

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, record numbers of hot days were broken at individual observation stations.

July's precipitation levels were lower than usually in most of the country. Mainly in some parts of southern and eastern Finland, the precipitation levels were slightly higher than usually. In the driest areas of Åland and in western and central parts of Finland, the precipitation levels were less than one-fifth of the usual levels. The month's highest amount of precipitation, 121.5 mm, was measured in Anjala, Kouvola. Furthermore, the highest rainfall per day was measured in Anjala, too, as on the 21st, it rained 81.1 mm. In July, it rained the least in Jomalaby, Jomala, where the monthly amount of precipitation was only 4.2 mm.

During the month, the sun shone approximately 300–350 hours in the southern and central parts of the country and approximately 350–400 hours in the southwestern archipelago and in the northern part of the country. The total number of hours of sunshine was more than average throughout the country, and especially in the northern part of the country, the total number of hours of sunshine was high. For instance in Tähtelä, Sodankylä, the sun shone 160 hours more than the average number of hours of sunshine is for July. The last time it was this sunny in July was in 1980 in Sodankylä.

Further information:

Weather statistics for July (in Finnish): http://ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/heinäkuu

Weather statistics from the climate service, tel.  0600 1 0601 (EUR 4,01/min + local network charge)Weather forecasts from the meteorologist on duty 24h/day tel. 0600 1 0600 (EUR 3,85/min + local network charge)