The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) has issued a warning for hot weather across Finland until Friday.
The warning covers nearly the entire country, except for Central and Northern Lapland as well as the Åland islands. FMI issues potentially hazardous 'hot weather' warnings when the daily high temperature exceeds 27 degrees Celsius and the average temperature is at least 20 degrees.
The summer’s temperature record was broken on Monday in Kaskinen, Ostrobothnia, where the mercury climbed to 32.4 degrees. According to FMI, similar temperatures could be seen in the same region over the coming days.
Monday also saw Finland’s highest number of lightning strikes so far this summer, according to a post by the FMI on social media platform X. By 4:44 pm on Monday, nearly 1,900 lightning strikes had hit the ground, and more were expected, the institute noted.
On Thursday, hot weather is expected only in southern and central Finland. By Friday, the situation will reverse, with heat warnings in effect solely for Lapland.
Although the heat will ease somewhat over the weekend, the FMI says many parts of the country could still continue to experience heatwave-like conditions.
Edited to clarify the FMI's criteria on issuing warnings for potentially hazardous heat conditions.
