Temperatures in the next few days will either tip the scales or come up a day short of beating the 1973 record for 38 days straight sporting heat wave temperatures.
In Finland, as in the other Scandinavian countries, it is officially hot when the top temperature of the day exceeds 25.1 degrees Celsius. What is considered hot is naturally relative to the climate in question. In Spain temperatures must exceed 30 degrees Celsius before conditions are officially considered hot.
Be that as it may, as of Sunday, Finland has enjoyed 36 consecutive days of temperatures peaking at a minimum of 25.1.
“At present, it looks as if Monday and perhaps even Tuesday we will have hot temperatures, but this is likely to end on Wednesday, which would mean we would end up tying the 1973 record,” says Yle meteorologist Toni Hellinen.
Local record already broken
The record for consecutive hot days in a specific location was broken this summer in two places: the eastern city of Kouvola and the south-central municipality of Hattula. Both have recorded 25 consecutive days of hot weather to date. Previous records date back to 2003, when the cities of Porvoo, Heinola and Orimattila had 22 consecutive days with sweltering summer weather.
This month-long spell of balmy temperatures in Finland has been the result of a strong and extensive high pressure front that has hovered over Northern Europe and kept low pressure fronts from the Atlantic over the ocean and to the west.
“This has made the weather in Central and Southern Europe much more variable and cool, while Finland and all of Northern Europe has been hot and dry,” says Hellinen.
Seasons can't change overnight
The weather will cool down next week, but there is still no talk of autumn’s arrival.
“It may feel more autumnal, but temperatures after the small change in the weather Wednesday will be more on par with long-term averages,” says Hellinen.
Next week the mercury will fall on both sides of 20 degrees throughout most of the country.
“It looks like the weather will be quite variable and most of the country should be prepared for rain. The evenings will of course grow cooler which might seem really noticeable, but the switch to autumn won't happen overnight.”