Stormy weather yesterday evening in Finland

One of the warmest May days on record was experienced yesterday in Finland. However, storms cooled things down in locations throughout the country, especially in Western Finland, from the afternoon until the early hours of today.

The highest temperature in Finland yesterday was recorded in Heinola. It ended up peaking at 30.8C there, only 0.2C off the all time Finnish record of 31.0C measured at Lapinjärvi on May 30 and 31 in 1995. It was only the second day with temperatures above 25C this year and that measurement is already warmer than any day anywhere in Finland throughout 2008 and 2009.

Jyväskylä reached a top of 29.3C. Other notable recordings were 30.7C in Lappeenranta and 30.5C in Kouvola. While the all time record for Finland wasn't broken, many locations broke individual May records.

Unsettled air in the Baltic Sea led to increasing storm activity during the afternoon. Turku was already hit around 1pm as storm cells developed and moved north. Jyväskylä escaped the worst of the storms, but did see some lightning strikes in the evening. A small amount of rain, 2.0mm, was also recorded at Jyväskylä Airport. Viitasaari and Pihtipudas, both north of Jyväskylä, received around 20mm each.

Storm clouds to the west of Jyväskylä just before 8:30pm on May 19

The long term monthly average for May of 8,500 ground strikes was overhauled in just one day. The Finnish Meteorological Institute reported a total of over 13,000 ground strikes yesterday. As seen in the article linked, the worst affected areas were to the west and north of Jyväskylä.