Cool April period in Sydney, warm weekend in Jyväskylä

The jump to autumn has been a bit sudden in Sydney this month. The end of March saw fairly warm temperatures above 25C, and the first two days of April were also rather warm, but of the 12 days since then, only one has surpassed the 25C mark.

April 2's top of 31.0C at Sydney Airport was the highest April temperature seen since 2006. The temperature drop was sharp though with April 3 only getting as high as 20.5C as rain also arrived across Sydney.

Today reached a top of 23.3C, the highest in a week. The current run of eight consecutive days below 25C is the longest since the middle of September last year, but while the drop has been a little quick after a warm, but not excessively hot, March, these temperatures aren't unusual for April.

Minimums have been quite steady as well. The past 10 days have seen figures ranging only 1.3C between 14.5C and 15.8C. The 14.5C was seen this morning and is the third lowest so far this year.

Early spring in the northern Finnish city of Oulu on April 12

It was real spring weather in Jyväskylä over the past weekend. Saturday saw it climb to 10.6C at Tikkakoski, the third warmest temperature of the year, but it was quickly relegated to the fourth warmest on Sunday as temperatures climbed agonisingly close to breaking the 15C barrier. After an overnight low of -2.6C, it 'soared' to 14.9C, the warmest in almost seven months.

The 14.9C figure for April 12 is easily the earliest time of the year for such a temperature in the years since 2009. 2010, 2012 and 2013 didn't see a maximum that high until May. Of the previous six Aprils, 2014 saw the earliest date above 14.9C with 17.1C recorded on the 21st day of the month.

Temperatures dropped on Sunday evening though as a low pressure system arrived over southern Finland. Showers, and even a small amount of storm activity, worked their way north, dropping temperatures along the way. Yesterday still reached 8.0C at Jyväskylä Airport, but today has been cooler still, getting to only around 5C.

April has been quite dry in Jyväskylä so far. Today is the sixth day of precipitation at Tikkakoski, but the total so far sits at only 5.3mm. Half of that has fallen yesterday and today. The forecast for the coming week does show some more signs of rain, but it doesn't look like there'll be any especially heavy falls.