April was sunny and in times unusually warm

According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute’s statistics, the average temperature in April was approximately one degree warmer than usual in the south and the north, and in some places it was exceptionally warm. On the other hand, April was normal or slightly colder than usual in the middle section of the country. The average temperature in April varied from about -2 degrees in north-west arm of Finnish Lapland to +6 degrees along the country’s southern coast.

The month began and ended in colder weather than usual, while around the month’s midway mark it was unusually warm in some places on the southwest of the country and in eastern Lapland.

The month's highest temperature, 21.0 degrees Celsius, was measured on 26 April at the Lepola and airport observation station in Lappeenranta. The lowest temperature of the month, -25,9 degrees, was measured on 3 April at the Tulppio observation station in Savukoski.

Middle of the country rainy, drier elsewhere

Precipitation this April was lower than usual in the southern and eastern parts of the country and in Lapland. The precipitation levels in these areas were in many places only 10-30 millimetres, which occurs on average once every 5-10 years. On the other hand, in Ostrobothnia’s municipalities and Kainuu it rained one and a half times or even twice as much as usual. The monthly overall precipitation in these areas was generally 30-60 millimetres.

Of the observation stations, the most precipitation was recorded in Halsua, 61.3 mm, and the least in Itätulli, Uusikaupunki, 8.1 mm.

At the end of the month, there was a snow cover in Kainuu, Koillismaa and Lapland. The snow depth varied above and below 50 centimetres. The greatest amount of snow on the morning of the last day of the month was at the Kenttärova observation station in Kittilä, 96 centimetres.

Record amount of sunshine in places

The sun shone exceptionally much in April. In many places, the sun was out for nearly 300 hours, whereas the typical amount for April is about 100 hours less.

The most hours of sunshine were recorded at the Kotka Rankki observation station, totalling 306.2 hours. This is the second highest April value in the station’s measurement history. For example, station-specific records for hours of sunshine were broken at Helsinki-Vantaa, in Jokioinen, Rovaniemi and Sodankylä this April.

Further information:

Weather statistics for April (in Finnish) Meteorologists use the word exceptional when the statistical likelihood of a weather phenomenon is on average three times or less in 100 years. A phenomenon is called rare if the average occurrence is less than once in ten years.

Weather statistics from the climate service tel. 0600 1 0601 (EUR 4,01/min + local network charge)