As the busy first weekend of July begins, rain and thunderstorms are moving across the southern, western and central parts of Finland on Friday.
Major outdoor festivals include Ruisrock in Turku, Puistoblues in Järvenpää, Baltic Jazz in the southwest archipelago and Santa Open Air in Rovaniemi as well as rock and pop events in Hämeenlinna, Ilosaari and Jämsä.
Other mostly indoor cultural events this weekend include the Savonlinna Opera Festival, Sysmän Suvisoitto, the Jyväskylä Festival as well as Words and Music in Kajaani.
Friday's highs will be around 20 degrees Celsius, but showers will cool temperatures locally. Rain and thunderstorms are set to continue into the evening.
Overnight, the heaviest rains will intensify as they move eastward. On Saturday, conditions will again be very unsettled in southern and central regions.
Thunderstorms are especially likely in the south and west, as well as in Finnish Lapland. Daytime highs will again be around 20 degrees.
Unstable weather will continue in the southern and central parts of the country on Sunday, with winds picking up in the north.
Above-average temps in June
The damp start to July follows a warmer-than-usual month of June in Finland. Temperatures averaged 1–2 above average during last month in most parts of the country – but were still far lower than those experienced in most of Europe, which is Earth's fastest-warming continent.
According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute, there were 13 "hot" days in June, meaning that the mercury rose to at least 25C (77F) somewhere in the country. The longtime average is eight such days in June.
June was unusually warm in northernmost Lapland and the southwest archipelago.
The month's average temperatures ranged from varied from about 10 degrees in the northwestern arm of Lapland to around 17 degrees in southern and central parts of the country.
The hottest reading of the month was 29.5 degrees in southwestern town of Salo this past Monday, while the coldest was -2.5 in Kittilä, Finnish Lapland, on 2 June.
