malby

Lovely spring weather at the moment. Proper seasons - exactly why we (& our dog!) love living here!

Interesting article on this winter's weather here in Finland. Surprised the meteorologist they consulted didn't recognise the potential impact of the upcoming grand solar minimum on events: Finland's winter has been exceptionally snowy, cold and long | Yle News | Yle YLE.FI While in most parts of the world the weather has been warmer than average, this winter has been snowier, colder and longer than usual in Finland.

Marcus_surfer Nice report Marcus and glad you love the country (& weather here!) so much. We do too which is why we moved here. There's proper seasons, rather than the year-long autumn that the overcrowded UK suffers from!

Markus03 That warm air didn't quite make it up to us in central Finland so I think it is only a Southern Finland warm-up. We reached only 0.4C this morning and the temperature has already dropped below freezing again but the big news here is the snowfall figures. We have had continuous snowfall since yesterday afternoon that has deposited around 15 - 20cm of fresh, drifting snow. I'll need to dig my plough out before I can start clearing my road and yard again!

Another cold week with the temperature last night dropping down to -31.7C. Could get one more sub -30C again tonight before temps rise a bit on Saturday, as some cloud and light snow is forecast to move in from the NE.

As Marcus above indicated would happen, it was a very mild day today across the whole of Finland as we temporarily dragged up the same airmass that gave the UK it's warmest day yesterday. I recorded a maximum of 3.9C and just about everywhere in Finland was above freezing today. Even Apukka (near Rovaniemi in Lapland) reached 2.7C and Inari (further north still in Lapland) reached a temperature of 3.3C! Surprisingly there was little thawing of lying snow here which I think was down to the sub zero dew points and subsequent dry air. We're back below freezing now but temps this high here in mid-winter are pretty unusual.

Yes, we had a snowstorm yesterday (see video below) but temperatures rose above freezing by midnight and it's currently the warmest day since the beginning of November at 2.3C. There's been rapid snowmelt here at our son's in Heinola, Southern Finland and a thaw even at our own property further Northeast in central Finland. Temps should drop back below freezing overnight but ice will be a big problem. VID20240122183450.mp4

Yep I agree. My son lives in Heinola and it looks like much of the precipitation on Monday / Tuesday will be sleet or maybe even rain there. We had another cold night last night at -28C but that looks like the last of the sub -20's for a while. It's still cold now though at -26C so it going to be a big warm up over the next few days. I'm wondering whether on Tuesday we will beat our highest maximum for the month from a few weeks back at 1.6C? Could be close but it looks mostly dry on that day so shouldn't lose too much snow.

Cold again here today with a min of -29.5C last night and -25.1C currently but don't think we'll be as cold tonight as cloud is moving in with snow forecast for tomorrow. Milder weather moving in next week as Markus indicated however I think we could still have enough entrenched cold air and the lows track far enough south to result in much of the precipitation still being snow (at least here in central Finland), as indicated by the most recent Meteogram. Beyond next week who knows what's going to happen but there are signs that pressure could build again and temps drop. At least today brought some beautiful light. Just wish I was a better photographer to take advantage of it!

Nice pics. Looks like all of Scandinavia and Finland is going to get a lot more snow over the next week or so, your location in particular. Our forecast is for snow from midday tomorrow until Monday evening so will be interesting to see just how much we do get. I've just finished digging out and widening our access road so hoping we don't get too much more! As for tonight, it's another cold one.

Glad we don't get those sort of maritime influenced rapid changes here! Yes it's warmed up the past couple of days but thankfully we had very little precipitation and with maxes yesterday and today of 1.6C & 1.4C respectively and with a dusting of snow last night again there's been very little thawing of lying snow. Temps are back near freezing now and due to drop to -18C by this time tomorrow so we'll be back in the freezer again.

Well we did it. Broke our lowest minimum for the winter last night at -34.2⁰C. It looks like the far NW of Finland around Muonio, Enontekio and Kilpisjarvi was sub -40⁰C again but this is plenty cold enough for us, especially as our heat pumps are struggling to work properly at these temps. It's just a case of keeping a roaring log fire going to keep the place warm instead, which isn't a bad idea today anyway since Finnish power have increased the price of electricity by up to 10-fold today to try and cut down on power usage. We have friends with businesses who say it is going to cost them hundreds of Euros extra today alone (the attached chart shows the hourly cost of a kWh of electricity today at different times. Eg. it's going to cost 2.35€ per kWh at 7 pm today!)

All good advice and basically what we try to adhere to. I find that when wearing a face mask / covering and trying to do anything that involves exertion though (such as snow clearing) I get too hot and have to keep my mouth and nose clear in order to breathe freely. That limits the time I can stay out in it obviously. The temps didn't stop us having a naked snow 'bath' during sauna tonight though! As for tonight's temps, yes, as expected, it's the coldest so far this winter. Currently -32.5⁰C

Well I couldn't feel it for one, my eyelashes and face mask were ice covered and when I came in my exposed cheeks and nose were bright red and as cold as ice according to my wife, who then told me off for staying out there so long!

Going to be a cold one here tonight, probably the coldest night of the week / winter so far (-31.6⁰C to beat!) as it's already -30⁰C at 4PM and is crystal clear and dead calm out there. Was doing some snow work earlier this PM to clear a few walkways but could only manage 45mins outside before I had to come in as my nose was getting frostbitten! Will be interesting to see just how low the temp falls tonight as temps are due to rise by the weekend with some more snow coming in, so will be last chance to beat the low for a while.

Yep, cold here last night too at -31.6C. Our dog certainly didn't want to spend long outside this morning when he went out for a call of nature! Expecting a few degrees lower at some point this week. Would have been colder this morning if we hadn't had an unexpected light snow shower around 6 am.

Been a lovely snowy Christmas period here. Our daughter is glad that she swapped Brighton for Finland this Christmas but isn't looking forward to returning home later this week! Here's a couple of snaps and a video from yesterday. VID20231224154220.mp4

Here's the link explaining all about these types of stratospheric ice clouds. In summary they only appear in polar regions and are only found above 50,000 ft. I've only seen them once before and I'm guessing they're pretty rare. Polar stratospheric cloud - Wikipedia EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Had to post this picture of the sky here today. Mother of pearl / nacreous clouds I believe. Stunning but my camera still didn't do them justice so borrowed this from our local FB group.

Well the long forecast Atlantic air arrived overnight, pushing the temperature above freezing (0.3C) for the 1st time since 11th Nov. All the precipitation remained as snow however, despite forecasts of it turning to rain for a time, and it deposited another couple of inches to the 12" base. Back below freezing again now so thankfully we didn't get the layer of ice that would otherwise have occurred. Looks to be a snowy week coming up now as we seem to be sitting just north of the Jetstream, which will be bringing another couple of snowstorms in before Christmas. Our daughter arrives here tomorrow from Brighton so it will be a definite change of scenery / weather for her and of course she'll get her white Christmas.

A few more pics from today. Only -15C last night here in Narnia...

A beautiful day here today after a cold night (-22.6C). A max of -11.6C late in the day as a band of snow moved through but lovely and clear until mid PM with the trees covered in rime. The 1st picture was taken at 1.30pm, showing how low the sun is at this time of year .

Been a cold and snowy few days. Yesterday we had a min of -21.7C which the locals say is probably the lowest in November here since 2010. I think Lapland had a min of -34.5 C so certainly a cold airmass. Overnight last night we had a snowstorm with wind gusts to 30 mph although it brought 'warmer' air from the East and today's max was -3.8C but it's still snowing now and temps are expected to fall when it clears as we import another pulse of sub 510dm air.

Nice to see a group like this on here. We moved from West Yorkshire to Finland a couple of years back to join our son who works here. The climate is certainly different to the UK's and much more to our liking. Proper seasons and plenty of winter snow for skiing! We are around 200 miles NE of Helsinki and it's usually a good deal colder than the capital. I set up a PWS in Oct 2021 and the link's here if anyone's interested: https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/ISUONE6

Hi Guys, Recently rediscovered the site and thought you might be interested in my weather station here in Finland, that I established when moving here back in October 2021? Having moved from Huddersfield West Yorks, the climate is different to say the least! Eg, Today's max & min were -10.5C & -15.6C respectively. Here's the link: Personal Weather Station Dashboard | Weather Underground WWW.WUNDERGROUND.COM Weather Underground provides local & long-range weather forecasts, weather reports, maps & tropical weather conditions for locations worldwide.