Coldest Lapland spring in 20 years
Average May temperature in Finnish Lapland was more than 6° C colder than last spring when it was green leaves in mid-May.
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Snowy, cold wind, ice on the lakes. Spring 2017 seems to be cancelled in northern Scandinavia.
Finnish Meteorological Institute has put figures to what everyone in the north already now: May was more winter than spring with average temperature measured in Sodankylä in Lapland of 2.6°C, or 6.4°C colder than last spring’s May average of 9°C. May has not been colder since 1996. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}Before that you have to go back to 1965 and 1968 to find anything similar.
June, supposed to be the first summer month, started off in northern Norway with a warning on radio to drivers: put on winter tires if crossing any of the mountain roads towards the coast of Finnmark.
And the white stuff blowing with the wind? No, its not pollen, but snowflakes.
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This year stands in sharp contrast to last spring. In Kirkenes, where the Barents Observer has office, last May was 5.2°C warmer than average and by mid-May it was already green.
