Weather in Southern Finland unusually warm for September

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Autumn has arrived in northern parts of Finnish Lapland early this year, and the first snow appeared in the far northern parts of the province already last week. On the other hand, the weather in the southern part of Finland is surprisingly warm, even though the autumn equinox - signalling the official end of the summer months - occurred already last Saturday.
      In the autumn, the weather changes rapidly, the evenings and nights get dark and rains and storms follow each other with depressingly predictable regularity.
      The autumn months are also the period of mushrooms and berries, while the most notable sign of the fall season is the colour changes, with all leaves turning yellow and red: in Lapland the riot of colours is a major tourist attraction, known as "ruska".
     
In Southern Finland all deciduous trees are still largely green, whereas in the north, the forests are glowing with autumn tints, and the annual explosion of colour is gradually spreading towards the south.
      Migratory birds are departing and heading for the south, and the first ones to vanish have been swallows and other insect-eaters.
      The most fascinating signal of the upcoming autumn is a wedge of cranes heading to their winter homes. The first wave of cranes has already gone, while the main crowds are still waiting for suitable winds on the fields of Ostrobothnia.
     
The current autumn
is said to be the warmest within living memory. There have been no frosty nights in Southern Finland, rains have been slow to come, the birches are still green, and the dahlias are still blossoming on balconies.
      While the calendar shows that the boating season should be over, people still go boating in temperatures of around 20°C.
     
Geographically, Finland is a very long body of land from north to south. Hence the autumn proceeds at a different pace in various parts of the country. In Northern Lapland, the autumn has arrived early, and the first snowfall has already appeared and most of the leaves have fallen off the trees.
      In Southern Lapland, the leaves are turning bright red and yellow, while the trees are storing chlorophyll for the winter.
      While the warm weather is expected to continue in the southern part of the country over the next few days, the Finnish Meteorological Institute forecasts that it is going to get colder at the end of the week. In Northern Lapland the temperatures will continue to be low all week, dropping close to zero by the weekend.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Northern Lapland receives autumn´s first sprinkling of snow (21.9.2006)

Links:
  Finnish Meteorological Institute

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