Climate

A land of four seasons

Spring, summer, autumn and winter – each season is different in Finland. Summer is warm and bright with almost 20 hours of daylight at the latitude of Helsinki. The temperature often rises to +20 °C or more and occasionally gets close to +30°C in southern and eastern parts of the country. North of the Arctic Circle the midnight sun stays continuously above the horizon from early June to early July, but even in the southern parts of the country summer nights are very short and light, since the sun sets only just below the horizon.

In the winter, northern Finland is covered by snow from November to April. In the south, the snow usually arrives in December. North of the Arctic Circle, the winter includes a period known as the polar night, when the sun does not rise above the horizon at all. In the northernmost extremity of Finland, the polar night lasts for 51 days. In southern Finland, the shortest day is about 6 hours long. In winter, temperatures of -20°C are not uncommon in many areas. The average temperature in Helsinki in July is +17°C and in February -5,7°C. Obviously, the winter temperatures in Finnish Lapland are much lower!

Autumn and spring are transitional seasons. They can be rainy, but there is also something very special in the gradually increasing sunshine of early spring that brings with it melting snow and budding leaves, not to mention the arrival of migratory birds. Similarly, although autumn brings with it darkening days and cooling weather, it is also a season of beautiful colour when the leaves in the trees turn bright yellow, orange, and red.

In Finland temperatures are given in degrees Celsius “°C”. (To convert to Fahrenheit multiply Celsius by 1,8 and add 32.) Finland’s climate is temperate. The average temperature in Finland is several degrees warmer (as much as 10°C in winter) than that of other areas at the same latitudes e.g. Siberia and southern Greenland.