July was unusually warm in Finnish Lapland

July was warmer than usual across Finland, the Finnish Meteorological Institute reports.

Temperatures in Northern and Central Lapland were unusually, or even exceptionally high depending on the weather station.

In the northernmost part of Lapland, the number of hot days exceeding 25 degrees Celsius, was also exceptionally high compared to earlier years.

Of all weather stations, Utsjoki Kevo recorded the most hot days, with a total of 14. Utsjoki is located in the far northeast of Finland, near the border to Norway.

There were 20 days in total somewhere in Finland where the temperature exceeded 25 degrees Celsius, which is four days above the July average.

The weather is rarely exceptional. Meteorologists use the word “exceptional” only when a weather phenomenon occurs statistically on average once every 30 years or more seldom.

A phenomenon is called “unusual” when it occurs less frequently than on average once every ten years.

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Trend of warming

Hannele Korhonen, Research Professor at the Meteorological institute, says that an overall trend of warming has been recorded in Finland, including Lapland.

“Long-term measurements since the 1960s show that all seasons in Finland are getting warmer, especially winters.”

In Lapland the heat puts stress both on humans as well as nature.

“Especially old and sick people are affected by the heat waves. The same goes for wild animals and the vegetation. And the risk of forest fires increase.”

Signs of climate change

Despite the trend of warming summers, Korhonen does not want to speculate about what to expect in Lapland next summer.

After all, spotting trends of climate change require long-term measurements whereas weather patterns can change from one year to the next.

“The increase and lengthening of heatwaves is one of the well-known consequences of climate change…There can be significant differences in heatwaves between different summers due to natural variability. However, long-term measurements clearly show that summers have generally warmed in Northern Europe since the early 20th century,” says Korhonen.

Hottest days on record

According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the average global temperature in July was 16.91°C. This is just 0.04°C lower than the hottest month on record, which was June 2023. July marked the end of a 13-month streak of consecutive temperature records.

July 2024 saw two of the hottest days ever recorded. The daily global average temperature reached 17.16°C and 17.15°C on July 22nd and 23rd, respectively.

In Europe, the temperature in July was 1.49°C higher than the average temperature for the same month during the climate reference period of 1991-2020.

It is known that the Arctic warms faster than the rest of the world.