Temperature drops in both cities

Warm evening temperatures in Sydney yesterday continued until around 1am this morning. It was 24.9C at midnight at the Airport before the city was hit by a strong southerly change. The strongest winds for the day were between 2am and 5:30am, with the highest gust being 70km/h right on 5am.

The rest of the day was rather cool. Southerly winds continued throughout the day and showers affected most locations around Sydney. The Airport received 4.2mm between 10am and 2:30pm. The winds and showers dropped temperatures further during the day. At 1:23pm it was sitting at only 15.6C.

Just like Sydney, if it weren't for warmer temperatures just after midnight in Jyväskylä the daily maximum would be much lower. It sat just below zero before dropping below -5C by 6am. It's almost 3pm now and the temperature hasn't risen above that mark, with no signs of it doing so until tomorrow afternoon. The current daily minimum is -7.4C, although it might get colder this evening.

During yesterday afternoon and evening there were some strong winds and flurries of snow. After sitting a couple of degrees above zero, winds turned from westerly to northwesterly around 3pm dropping temperatures to minus. The strongest wind gust I noticed at Jyväskylä Airport was 17m/s (61km/h) at 8:40pm, not too far from storm force.

I went for a run around Jyväsjärvi yesterday around 4:30pm and for anyone who knows Jyväskylä, going across Kuokkala Bridge against strong winds while wet snow is falling is anything but nice. I've only gone across the bridge in conditions that bad two or three times before. The slippery ice didn't help either...

Jyväskylä back to plus temperatures, Sydney 'cool' period continues

It's wet and cloudy again in Jyväskylä. A period spanning around 36 hours saw temperatures hold well below zero until a slow increase back to above freezing yesterday evening. It's currently sitting around 3.0C with the forecast predicting it to rise to 4C this evening.

Monday evening saw the mercury drop to -8.9C, but -13.3C around 9am yesterday was the coldest point in the 36 hour period. This is easily the lowest minimum of the month so far. In terms of the month of November, since 2008 only 2010 has seen lower temperatures; 5 days towards the end of November 2010 were -15C or lower.

There is still a fair amount of snow in Jyväskylä, but that will only decrease in the next 30 hours with forecasts showing plus temperatures for that whole period.

Sydney's 'cool' November continued with the average minimum not being improved in the last 2 days. Minimums of 15.8C yesterday and a cool 14.2C today actually dropped the average minimum further. Yesterday also had the lowest maximum in just over a week, only rising to 21.1C. It was slightly warmer today getting to 24.1C.

In addition to the low average minimum, the average maximum for the month has also taken a hit. After the first two weeks of November it stood at 26.1C. It has dropped to 24.7C since then. With summer drawing closer you would think it would work opposite to that.

Winds turned northerly this evening in Sydney though and temperatures are predicted to reach 30C tomorrow. Friday and Saturday's forecast maximums of 23C and 21C won't help increase the average though. If temperatures are as predicted then the average for the last three days would be 24.7C, coincidentally the current average maximum.

Cool in Jyväskylä, mild in Sydney

The approaching winter in Jyväskylä has been better felt in the last few days. Despite temperatures rising to 2.5C on Friday after Thursday's snow, it has been cooler since then. I was in Helsinki since Thursday evening, but based on my observations after coming back to Jyväskylä yesterday it was rather wet here on Friday. There is a small layer of ice making walking in the centre of town a challenge. A fresh sprinkling of snow in the early hours of Sunday have turned the city white though.

Beautiful clear skies arrived yesterday morning and have led to lower temperatures. Temperatures for the whole day yesterday stayed below zero. This was the first day in 8 months that that had happened. The daily minimum of -7.6C was also the coldest temperature since April 11. Forecasts currently predict -8C overnight, but I wouldn't be surprised to see temperatures briefly drop below -10C.

Sun setting over Jyväsjärvi

Ice is starting to appear in Jyväsjärvi

The sun shining on buildings in Jyväskylä Centre and Lutakko

The average maximum for November in Sydney continues to be lower than both September and October with less than a week remaining. Since Thursday the daily maximums in Sydney have slowly been decreasing. The average maximum is currently 24.8C after it reached only 22.0C today. This is still above the long term average of 24.0C though, further highlighting how warm September and October actually were.

The highest monthly minimum set last Thursday was short-lived with the temperature on Friday dropping only as far as 20.1C. As the end of the month draws near the average minimum is still the lowest in the period since 2009.

Southerly winds were strong this evening, reaching a maximum gust of 78km/h after 5:30pm. This matches the highest gust for the month which was recorded on Friday. A bit more than 10mm of rain also fell in the few days since my last post on Thursday, pushing the monthly total to 171.4mm. At least another 0.4mm is to be added from the current 24 hours to 9am period also.

Snow for Jyväskylä, unsettled in Sydney

Snow has arrived in Jyväskylä. It began falling around midday and there is a few centimetres of ground cover after a bit more than 4 hours. Temperatures overnight were the coldest in a month dropping to -5.6C before midnight and to -5.7C just after.

It should slowly warm to 3C by tomorrow though so there'll be plenty of slosh around the city. In addition to the above zero temperatures, rain will probably melt most of the snow that will have fallen. The 5 day forecast shows minus temperatures and sun by the end of the weekend.

Sydney was warm again today reaching a top of 27.1C at the Airport. The daily minimum was the warmest of the month at 19.6C. This was the highest in almost a month.

Storms affected many parts of NSW this evening. Sydney was mostly spared but Canberra, for example, experienced a short but severe storm. Two separate wind gusts of 93km/h were recorded at 6:41pm and 6:46pm. This was after a gust recording of 19km/h less than 5 minutes earlier at 6:37pm. Rain was heavy also with 25mm recorded in just over 10 minutes at Canberra Airport.

Storms crossed the Blue Mountains west of Sydney around 8pm but weakened as they approached the coast. The Airport received 1.2mm around 9pm. More storm activity is forecast for tomorrow.

Calmer weather after a wild few days

Sydney and Jyväskylä returned to fairly normal weather yesterday and today after a wild weekend in both locations. Over the weekend and continuing on Monday, winds from the storm known as 'Eino' howled in Jyväskylä and other parts of Finland, while heavy rain continued in Sydney.

On Monday the northern Sydney suburb of Hornsby experienced a small tornado. Roofing from a local shopping centre was torn off, branches were ripped from trees and a small portable office building was blown over as powerful localised gusts associated with the tornado moved through the area.

Rain over the 5 day period totalled 119.6mm at Sydney Airport pushing the monthly total so far to 158.8mm. Observatory Hill recorded 92.8mm pushing its total to 171.6mm. Temperatures were cool over the weekend also. Sunday was the lowest maximum for the month so far at 18.2C. It only reached 18.8C on Monday also. Yesterday and today were much nicer with temperatures reaching 24.1C and 26.7C.

That familiar autumn rain and cloud arrived back in Jyväskylä early yesterday morning. Mist and rain fell continuously over a period of 27hrs, but it was fairly light with only 9.1mm being recorded throughout that time. Today has been much clearer though.

Temperatures were above zero again. It actually pushed above 5C yesterday evening and held there until just after midnight. Including today, that makes a run of 6 consecutive calendar days with the maximum above 5C. This is the latest time in the year for that to occur in the 2008 to 2013 period. The warm November of 2011 was responsible for the previous record, with 6 consecutive days above 5C up to and including November 8. Other years experienced this final occurrence in October.

Snow is forecast to fall tomorrow afternoon as temperatures drop leading in to the weekend.

3rd strongest storm for Finland since 2000

Finland experienced its 3rd strongest storm since 2000 today. An intense low pressure system that was originally off the north-western coast of Norway a couple of days ago moved over the northern half of Finland during the day.

The most destructive part of the storm were the strong westerly and northwesterly winds which were felt throughout most of the country. The strongest gust of the day was recorded in Rantasalmi, located in the central eastern part of the country between the towns of Varkaus and Savonlinna. The gust was measured at 29.2m/s (about 105km/h) this afternoon. The most unusual thing about this is the fact that Rantasalmi is not near the coast. While Rantasalmi is situated nearby a large lake, this goes to show that many inland locations throughout Finland, not just coastal areas, were affected by the strong winds.

In the south, gusts at Helsinki-Vantaa airport were above 25m/s also. In Jyväskylä strong winds were felt during the morning and into the early hours of the afternoon. I tried to monitor wind gusts as they were updated each 10min but there appeared to be a power outage at the station around 11am. Before that point the strongest gust I saw was 19m/s (about 68km/h). There were power outages throughout the country, with an estimated 100,000 properties without electricity at some point during the day.

I have to say I personally didn't notice the storm developing. I'm pretty sure the first forecasts predicting the storm were made only a couple of days ago, which in a way is rather late considering the force of the storm as experienced today. Warnings issued by the Finnish Meteorological Institute were in place yesterday evening though as the potential effects of the storm were realised.

As for temperatures and rainfall, precipitation fell in areas north of Jyväskylä while temperatures mostly remained above zero. In Jyväskylä there was a brief shower and flurry of snow just before midday. There were no significant falls though. In fact, the station at the airport didn't even record trace amounts. Temperatures in Jyväskylä were above 4C this morning before dropping to around 2C this afternoon.

I took a few photos this morning when the winds were at their peak. My images unfortunately don't show some of the more serious damage that took place, including fallen trees and damaged buildings, but this is a small glimpse of what Jyväskylä was like today.

A fallen branch in Mäki-Matti

Trees bending over from the force of the wind

A piece of what appeared to be roofing which had been torn off blew around close to cars in the city centre

Heavy rain and storms in Sydney right now

Heavy rain and storm activity has been affecting different parts of Sydney for the last few hours. The Northern Beaches and suburbs further north on the Central Coast have seen strong falls with well over 50mm in only a couple of hours.

Sydney Airport and surrounds have also received big falls. From 10pm to midnight 58.2mm fell. If we look at long term averages for November at Sydney Airport, we can see that the average monthly rainfall is only 81.2mm. So more than 70% of the average monthly rainfall fell in just 2 hours!

Currently the rainfall total in the 4 hours from 9:45pm to 1:45am stands at 75.0mm with rain still falling. These falls have been rather isolated though as Observatory Hill, not more than 10km to the north, has received a much lower total of 21.2mm since 3pm. On the other hand, from the Rainfall since 9am view of the Sydney rain radar on the BoM site, it looks like Sylvania and surrounding suburbs in Sydney's south have received over 80mm.

Most of the rain is now off the coast of Sydney and is moving out to sea. The forecast for Saturday predicts further falls though with the chance of storms.

An uneventful few days

The showers and cloud returned to Jyväskylä after the sun on Monday. Only a couple of millimetres fell across Tuesday and Wednesday though. Today has been dry, although the sun hasn't been sighted at all.

Temperatures are still holding above zero for the time being. In terms of daily maximums, the past 5 days have been quite similar to the same time period in the 2011 and 2012 editions of November, with temperatures hovering between 2C and 6C. Minimums on the other hand have continued to be quite warm as I mentioned in a previous post.

There are no real signs of snow for the coming week with the warmer temperatures. Large areas of Lapland, on the other hand, have well over 10cm of snow on the ground. It has also been a little cold in the north. Temperatures have been below -10C and -15C in many locations across Western Lapland for the last 24hrs. The forecast for Pello predicts -21C for later this evening.

Sun and warmer temperatures returned to Sydney in the meantime. Maximums of 29.7C and 28.6C were recorded for yesterday and today. Cooler weather should return for the weekend though with the chance of some showers. Currently the 7 day forecast doesn't show any days above 30C. Actually only one day has a predicted top over 25C, so the cooler spell of weather will continue for a bit longer.

The low pressure system that was the cause of the rain earlier in the week in Sydney moved south to the Bass Strait by midday on Tuesday. It felt like winter again in Melbourne yesterday as it only reached 14.1C in the Victorian capital. The coming weather for Sydney is mainly due to a persistent high pressure system, which has been sitting in the Great Australian Bight for the few last days, moving east towards Tasmania as the weekend draws near.This will generate southerly and southeasterly winds for most of NSW over the weekend.

Weather swap

Sun sighted in Jyväskylä! That's almost a headline itself as the sun shone all day in Jyväskylä today. This was the first time that has happened since I arrived back in Finland on October 17. I guess that gives a pretty good indication of the weather that is typical for this time of year.

Temperatures were cooler today thanks to the clear sky. It is currently the coldest it has been for almost 3 weeks with the temperature dropping below -2C. It'll probably drop a little further later this evening as well. If not for the cloudy and warmer early hours of the morning, the maximum would only be 1.2C for the day.

The early hours of Sunday saw heavy rain in southern Finland. Once again Jyväskylä escaped most of the falls with 5.8mm recorded throughout yesterday. This is compared to recordings at southern locations such as Espoo with 16.4mm and Lohja with 18.9mm.

As beautiful blue skies were visible in Jyväskylä today, Sydney faced its second day of rain. Rain started falling on Sunday morning with showers coming across the city from the north. 6.4mm fell on Sunday, with a further 22.6mm falling today.

Strong southerly winds continually around 50km/h for the last 48hrs have kept temperatures down with the mercury just managing to hit 20.0C yesterday. It was cooler still today with 17C or less for most of the day. The daily maximum of 18.6C came later in the evening during a break in the rain.

Rain and showers should continue tomorrow with the chance of a storm before the sun returns with warmer temperatures on Wednesday.

Back to 30C+ in Sydney, still mild and wet in Central Finland

Today in Sydney was the third consecutive day above 30C. The mercury hit 31.8C at 11:15am before a southerly change saw temperatures slowly drop during the afternoon. This was after Thursday's top of 30.3C and Friday's 34.0C.

Overnight temperatures have also been warm. Yesterday's minimum of 19.1C is the warmest of the month so far. Temperatures held steady above 21C last night, although the southerly change has dropped it below 20C this evening and it is likely to drop further before midnight.

Today's 31.8C was easily above the forecasted 27C. The forecast had also predicted showers and the chance of thunderstorms. By looking at rain radars around NSW, however, it appears that rain activity has stayed clear of Sydney, and instead it has been mainly affecting coastal areas from the Central Coast to the Mid-North Coast of NSW.

Sydney shouldn't escape the rain for too much longer though as a low pressure system is forecast to settle right off the coast of NSW in the next couple of days. Tomorrow's forecast is for showers increasing to rain, with rain also predicted on Monday and Tuesday.

A bit of morning sun and blue sky in Jyväskylä on November 9

Despite a few glimpses of sun, Jyväskylä has remained mostly wet for the past few days. Not as much rain has fallen as earlier in the week, but persistent showers, drizzle and grey cloud has started to feel a little tiresome.

With the increased cloud cover and continuing winds from the south, conditions have remained humid and temperatures mild. The days of November 6-8 didn't see the temperature rise above 5C but minimums haven't gone below 0C either.

If the temperature today does not fall below zero (which I wouldn't bet any sum of money on happening) then that will make 9 days of November gone with only one day dropping into the negative. 2008* saw 7 of the first 9 November days drop below 0C, all 9 days went below in 2009, 6 in 2010, 2 in 2011 and 5 in 2012. The forecast at the moment doesn't show any sharp drops to freezing temperatures, although -1C and -2C are predicted for Monday and Tuesday mornings.

* I actually started recording weather in November 2008 for Jyväskylä only, so I have data for November and December 2008 in addition to 2009-2013 for both locations.

Wet weather for Jyväskylä, cool in Sydney

The last few days in Jyväskylä have seen quite a bit of rain. Almost 30mm fell over Monday and Tuesday. While this might seem quite low in comparison to rainfall in Sydney, if you look at averages for Jyväskylä it is quite high. In 2011 only 26mm fell during the whole month of November, and 36mm fell in 2012. The 1981-2010 monthly average stands at 54mm so we're on target at the moment to match or beat that mark.

The rain late yesterday was part of an intense low pressure system that moved north across the western part of the country. Along with the rain, strong winds were felt in many locations. I noticed a highest gust of 13m/s (about 47km/h) for Jyväskylä while monitoring observations on the FMI website. I may have missed a stronger gust though as FMI doesn't give daily recordings in the same way as BoM. Despite that, 13m/s is pretty strong for inland parts of Finland and a strong wind warning was in place yesterday. The strongest wind gust in Finland was at Kokemäki in the country's south west where a 23.3m/s (84km/h) gust was recorded.

November 6  in Jyväskylä was a showery day with hints of sunshine. Clouds cleared by late afternoon allowing the sun to briefly show itself again before setting.

Meanwhile in Sydney, it was the third coldest November morning since 2009. Around 6am this morning it was only 11.9C. Only November 2010 has seen lower minimums with two successive days at the start of the month dropping to 11.5C.

The start of the week was rather cool as strong southerly winds kept daily maximums below 20C with 18.4C and 19.6C recorded on Monday and Tuesday respectively. This was after the equal 6th warmest day of the year on Sunday. Temperatures peaked at 34.9C before a southerly change in the afternoon. Rain has stayed away for the time being although the current forecast shows the chance of a storm on Friday followed by showers and rain from Saturday to Monday.

October 2013 Review - Jyväskylä

October 2013 started in typical fashion with some of the last days of the year above 10C and a few nights below zero. The second half of the month was started with a hint of November when temperatures didn't climb above 3.5C for a week. However, warmer temperatures did return towards the end of the month with 11.7C and 10.4C being recorded on October 24 and 28 respectively.

Jyväskylä actually saw the highest number of October days over 10C for the last 5 years. A total of 10 days in the month were above 10C compared to 0 days for 2009, 5 for 2010, 7 for 2011 and 6 for 2012. This year also saw the highest October temperature of the last 5 years, 14.4C recorded on October 7. Despite that, the average maximum for the month was still below 2011's mark.

The table below compares averages from the last 5 years for the month of October in Jyväskylä.

Jyväskylä	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Average Min.	-3.0	0.2	2.0	1.0	0.5
Average Max.	4.1	5.7	8.3	6.0	7.7

Monthly averages for October in Jyväskylä for the period 2009-2013

The average minimum was in the middle for the 5 year period as shown in the table above. A monthly low of -7.4C on October 20 was also in the middle, with the 5 year low of -10.1C recorded last year. The highest minimum for the month was 9.9C, second only to last year's 10.3C.

While the average minimum was in the middle, the timing of the higher temperatures was quite different. As shown in the graph below the minimum of 8.4C recorded on October 28 was the latest time in the year for such a high during the last 5 years. If not for the cooler period in the middle of the month the average minimum probably would have been the highest.

October minimums in Jyväskylä for the period 2009-2013

In terms of rain, according to the Finnish Meteorological Institute the monthly rainfall of 60mm was well below last year's total of 103mm and also below the 1981-2010 average of 66mm. The cooler period mentioned above also brought the first real snowfall. Places around Jyväskylä received up to 10cm of snow on October 18. It slowly disappeared during the week that followed but disappeared completely afterwards.

October 2013 Review - Sydney

Sydney saw very warm maximums for most of the month of October. There were 7 days above 30C, with a monthly maximum of 37.8C recorded on October 10. This was the 4th warmest October day since 1939. The highest monthly minimum of 20.2C recorded on October 23 was the warmest in the last 5 years and within the top 90th percentile for records since 1939. Bushfires affected areas around Sydney for more than a week in the middle of the month on the back of these warm temperatures.

The table below compares averages from the last 5 years for the month of October at Sydney Airport.

Sydney	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Average Min.	14.0	14.7	14.2	13.5	14.4
Average Max.	21.9	22.5	22.1	23.8	26.2

Monthly averages for October at Sydney Airport for the period 2009-2013

Of the last 5 years this October was easily the warmest in terms of daily maximums. In fact, looking at Bureau of Meteorology records, this October was actually the second warmest since 1939. Only 1988 was warmer with an average maximum of 27.0C. It's also worth pointing out that only 2007 besides 1988 and 2013 had an average maximum above 25C. 

Another interesting observation is that the average maximum was actually 27.2C with 8 days remaining in the month. If not for the cooler final 8 days of October, which had an average maximum of 23.3C, the record would have been broken. 

Minimums, on the other hand, were fairly normal compared to the previous 5 years. A steady increase of average minimums since 1939 means 2013's average was above the overall average of 13.2C. The lowest overall temperature of the month, 9.7C on October 17, was similar to previous years, while the lowest maximum of 17.7C on October 16 was the warmest in the last 5 years.

As I mentioned in a recent post, the highest wind gust in more than a year was also experienced, 95km/h on October 29. In terms of rain, the monthly total of 16.2mm was well below the long term average of 70.1mm.