Very warm weather in Sydney, a bit of snow and around zero in Jyväskylä

Warm summery temperatures continued in Sydney today with the sixth consecutive day above 25C. Four of the past six have also either been at or exceeded 30C. Showers and storm activity arrived this afternoon though.

Friday November 21 was especially hot. The daily maximum equalled the second highest seen this month and year, as it got to 37.0C at the Airport. It was hotter in the west. Badgerys Creek saw a top of 39.6C, Penrith 40.5C, while Richmond topped the region with 40.7C. Observatory Hill was a little cooler at 33.9C.

Saturday was a little cooler even though it still topped 26.1C at the Airport. On Sunday Western Sydney experienced even hotter temperatures than on Friday. Penrith recorded a reading of 44.9C. Records only began at the Penrith Lakes station in 1995, but this was the fifth highest measurement on record. At Richmond the mercury pushed to 45.3C. This was only the second time in that station's 21 year history to go above 45C. It was much cooler on the coast though. Observatory Hill only got to 30.1C while it reached 33.0C at the Airport.

Sydney Airport reached 30.0C this afternoon and it was warm across the city once again. Showers and storms had been building west of the Blue Mountains though and they arrived around 4pm. It had been just over a week at the Airport without a drop of rain. The initial burst didn't bring much and even by midnight only 1.6mm had been recorded. Additional rain, however, is currently passing through the city and another 0.8mm has been seen up until 3:30am.

Other locations around Sydney experienced more rain and stronger wind gusts. The RAAF base at Williamtown, just north of Newcastle, recorded a 98km/h gust at 4:48pm. Only 18 minutes earlier a gust of 19km/h was measured. Temperatures dropped 7C there in a only few minutes also as a storm cell passed through the area.

The view of the November 24 storm from North Ryde
Source: Reddit user InnerCityTrendy - Imgur

Temperatures in Jyväskylä remained below zero from late on November 19 until this morning. Both the 20th and 21st dipped below -5C for the first time in two weeks. The 21st only went as high as -3.9C and, based on current forecasts, will probably remain as the coldest day this month. It was also the lowest maximum since the -4.8C recording from February 6.

Like Sydney Airport, Tikkakoski went several days without any precipitation; six in total. Such a stretch was last seen more than a month ago. It ended on Saturday as snow fell in the early hours of the morning. A total of 1.6mm was recorded during the day and led to maybe 2cm of snow around the centre of Jyväskylä. An additional 0.1mm yesterday took the monthly total to 47.8mm.

Jääpallo (bandy) practice at Viitaniemi Field in Jyväskylä on November 22

Temperatures climbing above zero today to almost 1C have led to slosh and much of the snow disappearing. Conditions in Jyväskylä recently have been very cloudy. It has been just over three weeks since clear sky was seen over the city. I can't recall even seeing a bit of sun since the sunny weather on November 1.