2015 has begun with some very warm temperatures in Sydney. The end of December saw an unexpected high though. As I mentioned in my previous post, maximum temperature predictions for the week following December 29 ranged between 27C and 30C, with the exception of December 31. Temperatures at Sydney Airport on December 30, however, climbed to 35.2C. This topped December 3's 33.1C as the highest of the month. It was also the highest temperature in five and a half weeks.
New Year's Eve exceeded expectations as well in getting to 26.0C. Two of the first three days of 2015 have surpassed the 30C mark and the month is also yet to see a temperature below 20C. Forecasts show these warm days continuing. Humidity levels have been quite high as well, but there hasn't been any sign of rain in the days since the year began. Tomorrow may see an afternoon shower or storm though.
Weather in Jyväskylä has been far more interesting lately than in Sydney. Temperatures in the central Finnish city also climbed dramatically at the end of 2014. From a low of -20.4C on December 29, it climbed almost 24C to 3.4C by the final hours of the year. That was the equal second highest daily maximum of the month and the warmest temperature in three and a half weeks.
The change had been predicted from last week and the mild weather has stuck around in the first few days of 2015 as well. New Year's Day saw a top of 3.6C. Of the Januaries since 2009, only two days in 2009 saw a maximum higher than that. Coincidentally 2014 also started in similar fashion to this year with minimum and maximum values of 1.8C and 3.5C, compared to 1.0C and 3.6C.
Earlier in the week a prediction for strong winds, wet snow and rain was made for southern locations in Finland. A large powerful low pressure system was forecast to move east at a latitude similar to that of the Åland Islands. Jyväskylä was due to miss most of the effects of the system, but on Wednesday the prediction was revised.
With a daily total of 11.6mm, yesterday ended up recording the highest precipitation since October 19 last year. Precipitation first fell as wet snow just before midday. It turned to rain during the late afternoon, and at one point it fell quite heavily in the centre of the city. It was an unusual sight due to the level of snow still present, a lot of which was slosh.
Jyväskylä saw fairly strong winds arrive yesterday evening. Gusts above 50km/h were seen at Tikkakoski. Wind warnings were in place as even stronger winds battered locations in the south of the country also. High seas in the Baltic caused havoc for ferries as well.
The warm weather hasn't reduced the snow depth in Jyväskylä as much as I thought it might. In fact, the depth has increased at Tikkakoski to 21cm by this afternoon. This is my sixth winter in Jyväskylä and the level of slosh around the city at the moment is among the highest I've ever seen. As temperatures rose on New Year's Eve, conditions became especially dangerous as paths and roads became extremely icy. Wet snow and snow has eased the severity of the ice since then though.
Jyväskylä is currently in the middle of a rather unusual period of weather. Temperatures have already begun to drop this evening and forecasts for Tuesday predict a low around -23C. How the large amounts of slosh and standing water will freeze will be quite interesting to see. And then by the end of the week temperatures should be back around 1C. At no point during the past six years have such great temperature changes occurred so often and in such a short period of time.
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