Mild and snowy in Finland, cool summer period in Sydney

Mild winter weather has continued in Finland during the past week. Since a rise on January 24, temperatures have stabilised mostly between -4C and 1C. In addition to the warmer temperatures, snow on January 31 and February 1 pushed the snow depth in Jyväskylä closer to 50cm.

Temperatures seen in the recent week have been reminiscent of those seen at the same time of year back in 2011. Other than that though, it has been rather mild for what is usually the coldest time of the year in Jyväskylä. Each of the last 10 days have seen daily maximums between -2.5C and 1.0C. January 29 was the highest of the period when it got to 0.8C.

Daily minimums have also been quite high. Not until today has a decline in temperatures been seen since January 24. The current daily low for today is -7.7C, the first time below -5C since the 24th. All other minimums between the 24th and today ranged between -3.5C and -1.6C.

Large bands of precipitation generated snow and wet snow across much of the southern half of the country during the weekend. Precipitation today pushed the current run of consecutive rain days to 11. The snow across Saturday and Sunday saw 3.0mm and 5.6mm recorded at Jyväskylä Airport. The snow depth at Tikkakoski now sits at 46cm.

Areas of snowfall spread further north too, where depths are now well above 50cm. Parts of Finland's Kainuu region are reporting depths above one metre at the moment. The ski centre at Paljakka, for example, has a current depth of 108cm.

Jyväskylä's Sepänkatu on February 1

Summer weather seems to have disappeared from Sydney lately. The Airport hasn't recorded a daily maximum above 26C since January 25, a current run of eight days. Only three of those eight went above 23C as well.

This prolonged period of cooler weather for summer isn't exceptional, but it's not common either. In 2009 the 10 days between February 9 and 18 didn't go above 26C, but the other years from 2010 to 2014 saw longest streaks of only four or five days below the mark up into early March. Forecasts suggest the current run could last another few days, with 26C or more not predicted until Saturday February 7.

At least the rain has stayed away since January 28. Final totals at Sydney Airport for January 27 and 28 amounted to 35.0mm and 23.8mm respectively. They helped the January total cross the 93.9mm average, as well as the 100mm mark.