Grey day for Sydney, unseasonal warmth returns to Finland

Today was a grey day in Sydney. After a rather nice, sunny weekend with tops of 29.8C and 30.7C on Saturday and Sunday, it only reached a high of 23.5C today. There was plenty of cloud around and some light drizzle was seen in some parts of the city. Despite the drizzle, the dry spell has continued as no rain has been recorded. Only 0.8mm has fallen so far at Sydney Airport this month.

As usual, the cooler temperatures today were the result of southerly winds. Winds were quite strong around dawn this morning. A mild southerly change occurred between 1:30am and 2am, but winds picked up around 3:30am. A south-southwesterly gust of 76km/h at 4:37am was the strongest of the day. It was also the strongest so far this year, with the previous strongest recorded on December 29.

As predicted, weather reminiscent of mid to late December last year has returned to Finland. Yesterday reached a high of 1.8C in Jyväskylä while the daily low was right on 0C. Today has had a low of 0.3C. To put this warmth into perspective, the highest minimums from each February from 2009 up until today are shown in the table below.

Highest minimums for each February in the period 2009-2014 (as of Feb 10 2014)

Not only did yesterday have the highest February minimum of the last 6 years, but it occurred fairly early in the month. The maximum of 1.8C yesterday is also the equal second warmest of the previous 6 years, only surpassed by last year's 5.8C recorded on the last day of the month.

Saturday saw a few centimetres of snow as temperatures hovered around zero, but it turned to wet snow later in the day as warmer air moved in. Roads have mostly been cleared of snow and ice courtesy of the warmer weather, while footpaths have almost turned into ice skating tracks. More snow is predicted to fall overnight and tomorrow morning, but temperatures aren't likely to go below -1C until Friday.