The summer of 2021 was the hottest in Finland since 1937, and the warmest ever recorded in Helsinki, according to data released by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI).
Temperatures over the months of June, July and August averaged 18.9 degrees Celsius in the capital region.
This beats the previous record, set in 2018, by 0.6 degrees Celsius, according to Mika Rantanen, a climate change researcher with the FMI.
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Rantanen added that temperatures recorded in the capital over the spring-summer season, from March to August, were also the highest on record.
"The insane warmth in June-July contributes so much," he wrote on Twitter.
Helsinki's hottest ever summer comes after a record warm autumn was recorded in 2020, Rantanen noted, and the winter of 2020 was also the warmest since Finland first began measuring temperatures in 1845.
Finland had 50 'heatwave' days this summer
The average temperature nationwide from June to August was the highest since 1937, and the second highest recorded over the past 120 years, according to the FMI's data.
Overall, there were a total of 50 'heatwave' (helleraja in Finnish) days — when temperatures reach 25 degrees or higher — during the three months of summer. Usually the average is about 33 days.
The highest temperature of the summer was recorded in the Heinola district of Asemantaus on 15 July, when the mercury rose to exactly 34 degrees Celsius.
However, temperatures cooled considerably during the month of August, even dropping below the long term average in southern areas. There was also one one heatwave day during the last month of summer, when 25.7 degrees was measured in the city of Kouvola, as well as in nearby Virolahti, on 13 August.
