Jyväskylä sees autumn settle in, more heat for Sydney

Autumn has well and truly settled in in Finland. Temperatures have been dropping further in Jyväskylä since late last week. The current high for October sits at only 11.7C, recorded last Thursday. It's possible that we'll see that beaten during the next two weeks, but if not, it'll be highest temperature seen for the remainder of this year.

Minimums have been at their lowest level for the first six days of October since at least 2009. Four daily minimums below -3C so far have contributed greatly to the current average minimum of -2.0C, just below 2009's -1.9C at the same point. In contrast, the respective figure for 2012 sat at 6.7C. Maximums have also been quite low, at the second lowest level since 2009. Saturday and Sunday only reached 9.9C and 7.4C respectively.

If current forecasts are correct and tomorrow fails to go above 10C, it will be the first instance of four consecutive days below that mark since early May. It should be a little warmer later in the week though, around 10C or 11C, thanks to an approaching warm front from the south west. The front should also bring rain.

Precipitation has been scarce so far this month. Saturday saw a few showers move east across the lower half of the country. Rain was light and only led to a total of 1.4mm at Tikkakoski. Of the whole country, only a small area around Helsinki and up to Lahti has seen more than 5mm since the month began.

The view at Jyväskylä's Harju on October 6

A carpet of yellow leaves in Viitaniemi on October 6

It was a hot day in Sydney yesterday. Temperatures soared above 30C, surpassing September 30's 34.2C by 0.2C, taking its place as third highest maximum seen so far this year in the process. The 34.4C figure from yesterday doesn't rank that highly for an October maximum, but the fact that it came within the first five days of the month is a little unusual. Another statistic surrounding warm days at the Airport is that 2008 was the last time there had been three days with maximums above 33C recorded this early after the conclusion of winter.

A southerly change arrived yesterday evening. Across the city temperatures dropped more than 10C in only half an hour. The change also brought strong wind gusts. The Airport recorded a 72km/h gust just before 8pm. That was the strongest seen in more than two weeks. 

Winds turned northerly again this morning though, leading to a warm day. The Airport got to an even 26.0C. The daily minimum today was also rather high. The last time a minimum above 17.2C was recorded was the 19.0C figure from April 11, almost six months ago.

Dry conditions today extended the current rain free streak to nine days. Tomorrow currently shows a 50% chance for rain with possible showers developing during the day, but other than that, no solid predictions for rain can be found for the next week.