It was hot again in Sydney today. It was a strange day though with plenty of wind changes. There was a warm morning, a very brief period over 35C and a cool afternoon.
The morning started fairly warm with easterly winds. At 12:30pm it was 26.7C after reaching 29C around 11am. It wasn't until the northwesterlies came that the temperature spiked upwards. As a result of the wind change, it jumped almost 10C to 36C between 12:30pm and 1pm; the daily maximum of 36.6C coming at 2:23pm. This was the second warmest December temperature since 2005, after last Friday's 37.8C.
The temperature dropped soon after, similarly to the way it had risen earlier. This time it was a southerly change that hit the city just after 3pm. By 3:30pm it was only 23.3C. The southerly change brought some strong winds also, 72km/h the strongest gust at 3:31pm.
After the hot day on Friday, Saturday was much cooler, but temperatures rose again yesterday reaching 31.2C. At Penrith in Sydney's west it was 41.0C. Yesterday was also responsible for the highest minimum of the month so far, 21.6C.
Meanwhile in Jyväskylä, miserable weather continues. For this time of the year, it's just not good. The last 3 daily maximums including today have been between 3.4C and 4.1C and it hasn't been below zero since Friday. In addition to that, there has been wet snow, rain and a lot of cloud.
Yesterday's minimum of 2.8C was responsible for the highest minimum of not only the month, but of all December days in the period since 2008. The previous record dates back to December 12 this year when it was 1.7C. Prior to that though you have to go back to December 3 2008 when the daily minimum was 1.3C. The latest date in the year for a minimum as high or higher than 2.8C in the period since 2008 was 4.0C on November 27 2009.
The monthly averages are still holding below December 2011's figures thanks to a few colder days earlier in the month, but with the current forecasts it's hard to see at least the average maximum not going higher by the time December is done. The highest temperatures for the coming days are predicted to be 1C, 5C, 3C, 3C and finally 2C. The current averages are -4.8C and 0.9C, compared to 2011's -2.1C and 1.6C.
The warmer temperature have been due to a series of low pressure systems around Iceland and in the Norwegian Sea that have been pushing southwesterly winds across the northern half of Europe for quite some time now. A forecast released by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) predicts warmer than average weather to continue in Finland for the whole 4 weeks between December 23 and January 19. So those in Finland should get used to the current weather as it looks like it'll be here for at least another few weeks.
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