Weather in Finland

From an email from my Finnish friend Carita, and this would figure: "The weather in september can be anything from gorgeous to ice cold. Expect thirties, hope for 60-70 degrees." Guess I'll be wearing a fleece with my shorts...

Carita was right, and the numbers back her up. Helsinki in September averages a high near 15C and a low near 8C, so call it 60 and 46 in old money. Her thirties are the nights, and they are real ones: go north of Oulu and frost in September is ordinary rather than surprising.

The part she left out is the light. Helsinki loses about six minutes of daylight a day through September, so the month starts with long evenings and ends with the dark arriving before dinner. Plan the outdoor half of a trip for the front of the month.

The compensation is ruska, the two or three weeks when the Lapland birch and dwarf shrub turn red and orange all at once. It peaks in the far north in early September and works south through the month. Finns take holidays for it, so the fell-country huts and the Rovaniemi trains fill up in a way the shoulder season otherwise never manages.

Current normals and forecasts come from the Finnish Meteorological Institute, in English. The fleece-with-shorts plan remains sound.

Posted 08 April 2003 by Ant in Finland, Eurail Blog Archives · updated by Chris