Autumn leaves in Oittaa, Espoo, on the morning of the autumnal equinox on Sunday, 22 September 2024. Temperatures in Finland will move from one extreme to the other this week, according to a meteorologist interviewed by Helsingin Sanomat. (Heikki Saukkomaa – Lehtikuva)
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PARTS of Finnish Lapland may wake up to first snow of the season this morning, according to Helsingin Sanomat.
Jani Parviainen, the meteorologist on duty at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), told the daily newspaper yesterday that the latest forecasts point to more than 10 centimetres of snow falling in north-western parts of Finnish Lapland.
“But it’s difficult to say how much of it’ll stay on the ground given that it’s the first snowfall of the year,” he added.
The official definition of first snow is an unbroken snow cover of at least one centimetres at 6am on the morning of observation.
The weather system that is expected to deliver the snow spread to northern parts of the country yesterday evening, with the rain expected to continue throughout the night. The precipitation will take the form of rain rather than snow in most parts of Lapland.
The coming days are also forecast to bring a wide variety of temperatures. “We’re now moving from one extreme to the other,” Parviainen said to Helsingin Sanomat.
Early on Monday, for example, the mercury was roughly 10 degrees below the freezing point in Sodankylä, Lapland. Today, temperatures in the region are expected to hover around the freezing point, after dipping slightly into negative territory in the early hours of the day.
In Southern Finland, by contrast, the mercury could climb to 20°C in certain inland and south-western areas, a level that is about five degrees higher than the average daily high for this time of the year, said Parviainen. Similar figures could be recorded in eastern parts of the country on Wednesday.
“Climatically it’s quite unusual to see 20-degree temperatures this time of the year in any part of Finland,” he said.
In Lapland, snow and rain could continue to fall on Wednesday and Thursday. In southern parts of the country, the weather should be clear today but turn overcast and possibly rainy with the arrival of a low-pressure system on Wednesday.
“There’ll be rain in all parts of the country, and the rainfall will have been pretty significant by the end of the week,” commented Parviainen.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
