Over A Century, The Hottest Temperature Record Re-emerges In Finland

Finland, a country in Northern Europe that has been covered with snow. (photo credit: Saad Chaudhry/unsplash)

JAKARTA - Lapland, Finland's northernmost region, has recorded its hottest day in a century. Kevo, a protected nature reserve near the border with Norway, recorded temperatures reaching 33.5°C, on Sunday, July 4.

This is the highest temperature recorded in Lapland for the last hundred years. The previous highest temperature was recorded at 34.7°C at the Thule weather station in western Inari in 1914.

This remains Lapland's highest temperature since records began in 1844. However, authorities fear the record could soon be broken.

One expert said the unusually high temperatures could be linked to an ongoing North American heatwave and could be fatal.

"A new heat record of 33.5 degrees has been measured in Kevo, Utsjoki," tweeted the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

“Readings may still increase as the day goes on. This is known to be the second-highest temperature measured in Lapland."

The Finnish Meteorological Institute previously announced that June 2021 was the warmest June on record in Finland, with a national average temperature of 16.5°C.

According to British meteorologist Scott Duncan, in Norway's northern tip Banak also recorded a temperature of 34.3°C. This is known, as a level of heat that has never been observed above 70 degrees north latitude in Europe before.

Duncan said Lapland is "currently under extreme heat". He thinks Scandinavia has been in the oven for a while.

"While these northern latitudes can get very hot (much hotter than many people may realize), there is a deep and long record being broken here," he tweeted.

Elsewhere in Norway, the Makkaur Lighthouse on the Arctic Ocean coast had temperatures of 30.8°C and the village of Tanabru hit 33.4°C, on Monday, June 5.