Climate

The part of Finland north of the Arctic Circle suffers extremely severe and prolonged winters. Temperatures can fall as low as −22 °F (−30 °C). In these latitudes the snow never melts from the north-facing mountain slopes, but in the short summer (Lapland has about two months of the midnight sun), from May to July, temperatures can reach as high as 80 °F (27 °C). Farther south the temperature extremes are slightly less marked, as the Baltic Sea- and Gulf Stream-warmed airflow from the Atlantic keeps temperatures as much as 10 degrees higher than at similar latitudes in Siberia and Greenland. Winter is the longest season in Finland. North of the Arctic Circle the polar night lasts for more than 50 days; in southern Finland the shortest day lasts about six hours. Annual precipitation, about one-third of which falls as sleet or snow, is about 25 inches (600 mm) in the south and a little less in the north. All Finnish waters are subject to some surface freezing during the winter.Finland has around 75 ski resorts. Even though FInland doesn’t have any mountains as such, the hills here are covered with snow for almost 200 days in a year.