It was surprising for everybody here in Finland to experience last summer. Winter was very cold and snowy for Finnish standards and summer came in strong and lasted the mandatory 3 months. We reached temperatures of 35°C in parts of the country and even in Helsinki it was above 30°C for most of July. Now the rains have started and the summer seems but a memory, so this post is a homage to the warmest, most tropical season in recorded Finnish history.
The Great Ice Age of 2009-2010 is finally over and with the big melt behind us spring is upon the land, with summer not far behind. A chronicle in pictures of the changes brought by April below.
Continuing with the theme of the previous post, RTVE published a documentary where they interviewed 12 Spanish families resident in Germany, Poland and Finland and asked them of their experiences in what has been described as the coldest winter in northern Europe in years. Funnily enough, one of the families they chose are good friends of mine.
You can watch it (in Spanish) in their website here.
The current winter in Finland is the continuously coldest, snowiest I have ever experienced after 9 years here. With temperatures averaging -10 (but reaching -27, without the windchill) and an amount of snowfall that is reaching a metre, the place looks and feels decidedly wintry. I mean, there’s more snow here than in Lapland!
Furthermore the exercise, the environment and the beauty of it all are gorgeous.
Found at the main entrance of the headquarters of a famous multinational corporation after yesterday’s snowfall. Whoever said Finns don’t have a sense of humour hasn’t spent long enough with them.
Taken with a Nokia N97.