Similar weather continues in both cities

It might seem like Jyväskylä has stolen the sun from Sydney this week. Warm and sunny weather has continued throughout most of Finland while wet weather has continued on Australia's east coast.

Today was another sunny spring day in Central Finland. Temperatures climbed above 10C for the first time in almost 5 months. Today has also seen the biggest temperature difference since May 16 last year. It was -8.5C this morning, making it a minimum to maximum difference of almost 19C.

In the previous 5 editions of March, the highest temperature was 7.2C in 2011. Including today, there have been 7 days this month above that mark. Compared to March last year, this year currently has an average maximum almost 7C higher.

Clouds have almost been non-existent since the start of the week. Only this morning has seen any cloud in the last 72 hours. Even then the highest coverage across a 4 hour period was 5 oktas. Similar weather will continue tomorrow and on Saturday but a change on Sunday will bring cooler temperatures heading into next week.

Sunset on Tuomiojärvi, Jyväskylä on March 25 

Tuomiojärvi in the evening of March 25

Sydney's run of wet weather pushed into its 7th consecutive day today. A total of 17 out of the 27 days so far this month have seen rain recorded. After some smaller falls in the late morning yesterday, a large band of rain swept south through the city in the late evening and continued for most of the night. The radar image below was taken at 7:30am this morning. Rain continued for most of the day also.

Terry Hills 256km rain radar image at 7:30am AEST on March 27 2014
Source: Bureau of Meteorology (screenshot unedited from original image)

Despite the prolonged period of rain, measurements at Sydney Airport in the past couple of days haven't been greater than Monday's 39.8mm. Yesterday saw 17.2mm recorded and today added another 9.8mm to the monthly total, which now stands at 147.2mm.

Temperatures since the start of the week have also been lower than the previous few weeks. The past 4 days have an average maximum of 24.2C, compared to the overall monthly figure of 27.0C. Yesterday's 25.6C has been the highest this week.

Rain is forecast to continue tomorrow, although it shouldn't be as heavy as the previous couple of days.