Stormy weather for Sydney and southern Finland

The strongest wind gust in over a year was recorded today at Sydney Airport. A gust of 95km/h from the south was measured at 2:08pm this afternoon, the strongest since a 106km/h gust in August 2012. The initial southerly change hit around 10:30am and temperatures stayed below 20C for most of the afternoon after reaching 24.3C in the morning.

A severe storm warning was also issued by the Bureau of Meteorology this afternoon for the Sydney Metropolitan area. Most of the southern half of the city escaped unscathed but northern suburbs were affected. The Central Coast north of Sydney bore the brunt of the rain with just over 27mm recorded at Gosford.

The past week has been much cooler than previous weeks. Between September 24 and October 23 there was a maximum gap of only 4 days between two 30C+ days. That's pretty remarkable for this time of year. To put it into perspective, there was a run of 16 days earlier this year in the summer month of February that didn't see a day above 30C. The current run including today is 6 days, with the forecast not showing another 30C+ day until this Sunday.

Stormy weather affected Finland overnight also. Leftovers from St Jude, the storm that hit the UK, The Netherlands and Denmark yesterday, hit the southern half of Finland late last night. Jyväskylä had just under 10mm of rain and escaped the strong winds that were felt in the south. The southern port town of Hanko had consistent winds just under 20m/s (72km/h), and while I don't have actual recordings for the strongest gusts, I'm sure they were well above that mark, possibly 23-25m/s. This was still well below wind gusts recorded in Denmark, including a new national record of 194km/h. Weather warnings are still in place for coastal areas in the south with strong waves also being experienced.

Temperatures in Jyväskylä in the meantime have been quite warm. The mercury went above 10C again yesterday. Only 2011 since 2009 has had temperatures above 10C this late into the year. Minimums are the highest for this time of year since 2009. A mild 8.4C was the minimum for yesterday, much warmer than -10.1C from the same date last year. A typical level of cloud, i.e. full cover, for this time of year has also been experienced with only a hint a sunshine.