Hottest day for Jyväskylä yesterday, similar conditions for Sydney

The recent spate of warm summer weather has continued this week with Jyväskylä recording its hottest day of the year yesterday. It only just failed to top 30C, getting to 29.9C in the late afternoon. That beats the record of 29.3C set on both May 19 and 24. The national record for the year was also set yesterday with a 31.4C recording at Mustasaari near Vaasa on Finland's west coast.

Temperatures above 30C are quite rare for Central Finland. In the past 6 years there have only been 7 days above 30C, with 6 of those occurring during the record summer of 2010. Last summer recorded 1 day above the mark.

The deeper we've gone into this July, the more similar it has looked to 2010's edition. While 2010 was and will remain slightly warmer, July 2014 now has the second highest number of days above 25C since 2009. 2010 saw 21 days above 25C, and including today, 2014 has 12. Based on current forecasts, we could see that number possibly climb to 19.

Today also makes it 8 consecutive days above 25C. Again, according to current forecasts, that streak could continue to as many as 14 or 15. Since 2009, the highest streak above 25C was recorded in 2010; a run of 10 days.

Cirrus clouds over Jyväskylä in the early afternoon of July 23

Winter weather has continued in Sydney this week in the same style seen recently. Today top's of 19.8C was actually the warmest in a week. Monday through to Wednesday saw daily maximums around 17C at the Airport.

Colder minimums around 6C haven't been seen since the start of last week, but they have still been below 10C. That has meant that the number of daily minimums above 10C this month remains at 2. Of the previous 5 Julys, 2009 recorded the lowest number with 6. If the current average minimum remains the same, it will be the lowest since 2008.

It hasn't been very warm but it has been quite calm since the weekend. Including today, the strongest gust since Monday is only 33km/h. Yesterday's strongest gust was a northwesterly at only 22km/h, the weakest since May 18. Dry conditions have also carried on with no rain being recorded in the past couple of days.