Sunny and windy in Jyväskylä over the weekend, hotter in Sydney

Some of the strongest winds of the past year were seen in Jyväskylä during the weekend. The average wind speed at Jyväskylä Airport held above 10m/s for around eight hours from a bit before 6am on Sunday morning. Wind gusts were up to 20m/s as well.

Warnings were in place for most of Finland as a strong low pressure system made its way across the lower half of the country in a southeasterly direction. Unsurprisingly, the strongest gusts were seen in coastal areas. Sälgrund, on the western coast near Kaskinen, recorded a gust of 36.3m/s and an average wind speed measurement over 10 minutes of 30.4m/s. Elsewhere, Helsinki-Vantaa Airport recorded a gust at 28.6m/s and a 27.5m/s gust was recorded in Kokemäki.

Daylight hours across the weekend saw bright blue sky and plenty of sun. Friday February 6 through to Sunday all saw good levels of sunshine. This was the first three day period of sun that I can remember since maybe last October.

There was some snow during the nights though. A band of precipitation, also moving in a southeasterly direction, preceded a rise in temperature on Saturday. A total of 2.4mm was recorded at Tikkakoski. Snow depths did touch 50cm at one point yesterday, but strong winds, and the resulting shifting snow, have the depth at 45cm today. Remarkably, of the 40 days so far in 2015, only eight haven't seen any precipitation at Tikkakoski. The most recent dry day, February 5, broke a run of 13 consecutive days of precipitation.

The rise in temperature on Saturday resulted in the warmest recording in almost three weeks. It reached 2.1C, the highest since 2.7C was recorded on January 17. That recording was also higher than any February temperature seen from 2009 to 2012. 2013 and 2014 both saw a top of 5.8C.

Temperatures did drop during the evening of February 7 though. After steadying around -5C for most of yesterday, it dropped further during the evening and the first temperature below -10C in just over two weeks was recorded. The -12.5C low today already puts it below February 2014's lowest temperature of -10.6C.

Sun in Jyväskylä during the afternoon of February 6

In Sydney the run of cooler temperatures finally came to an end over the weekend. Saturday the 7th saw a top of 27.7C at Sydney Airport, ending a 12 day run of daily maximums below 26C.

Sunday was even better. It was a very calm day with a strongest gust at the Airport of only 28km/h. This was the weakest such measurement since the same was seen on October 23 last year. Light northwesterly, and later easterly winds, accompanied a rise in temperature up to 33.1C around 4pm at the Airport. The sun was out in full force too. The Bureau of Meteorology recorded 12.2 hours of sunshine, the highest daily measurement since January 17.

It has been fairly dry in Sydney since those heavy falls on January 27 and 28. Only 1.8mm has been recorded at the Airport since then, 1.0mm on February 4 and the remaining 0.8mm the day after. It could stay dry in the coming couple of days but the chance of showers increases as the weekend draws closer.