More snow in Jyväskylä, windy in Sydney

Jyväskylä continued its consecutive run of daily precipitation today. Snow this morning made it the 16th straight day on which rain or snow has fallen at Tikkakoski. The past few days have mostly seen snow and, as a result, the snow depth now sits at 16cm. This is the highest depth for the season so far. During the 2013/14 winter only a brief period in February had a greater depth. The maximum snow depth for the whole season was only around 18cm.

Despite 16 straight days of precipitation, totals haven't been especially high. Only December 6 and 17 so far have recorded a daily total above 4mm. The 17th had the highest with 5.4mm. The graph below shows the steady increase of the monthly total which now sits at 42.2mm up until 11am today.

Cumulative rainfall for December at Jyväskylä Airport up until 11am December 20

Temperatures have still been hovering close to zero, although more so on the minus side compared to the month's first couple of weeks. Thursday saw the temperature reach a top of -1.6C, the lowest maximum since November 22, while the minimums for the 17th and 18th were -3.3C and -3.0C, the lowest since December 2.

Earlier forecasts that predicted a cold change this weekend were slightly off by a couple of days. However, temperatures will drop at the start of the coming week and, at least for Central Finland, Christmas 2014 should be a white one. Additional snow is predicted to fall later today and tomorrow and with temperatures dropping and remaining below zero from today onwards, the snow will surely stick around. Forecasts currently show drops to -18C or so towards the end of next week.

Sun briefly peeked through the clouds on December 18

Dry conditions have lasted a week in Sydney, but more typical summer temperatures haven't really been seen since earlier in the month. At Sydney Airport, only four of the 12 days from December 9 reached or exceeded 26C. A maximum of 28.4C on the 15th is the highest from the period. 

Yesterday saw the eighth day so far this December with a strongest wind gust above 65km/h at the Airport. As shown in the graph below, since the start of last year only the month of October 2013 recorded more with nine. A gust of 80km/h from December 11 remains as the strongest of the month to date.

The monthly number of maximum daily wind gust recordings above 65km/h at Sydney Airport
(1 January 2013 to 17 December 2014)