What is the weather in Lapland like?

Before coming to Kakslauttanen, many of our guests have concerns about the coldness of winter. As we are situated north of the Arctic Circle, it does get cold here in the winter – but not in the way you might imagine. This is because winters are dry, and the weather here is very rarely windy when it is freezing outside. The frost does not bite as hard as it does by the sea, where the air is more humid. So please don’t worry about it – besides, with us you can find all the clothes and hospitality that you need to keep warm.

Late in the winter, closer to the spring, the weather will warm up nicely, even though there is still a lot of snow. There are long hours of sunshine during the day, and the light effect is magnified by the white snow. In the summer, there is nothing as magical as the midnight sun. From June to August, the sun doesn’t set at all. Daytime temperatures are around 20 degrees Celsius. The summer season ends in early September, when the ruska period of changing colours commences. For about three weeks, nature is ablaze with the most incredible colours. This is a marvellous time for observing the northern lights (aurora borealis), as you can see colours all around you. The northern lights can be seen from when the nights start to grow darker, in late August, until the end of April.

Lapland has four different seasons and the temperatures vary accordingly:

Summer (June-August): Temperature differs surprisingly little form the average temperature of the European continent. Temperature may rise over +30°C with temperatures closer to +20°C during the days being more common.

Autumn (September-November): In the autumn when the days get shorter, the average temperatures are somewhere between 0°C and +10°C. Lapland gets usually first snowfalls in the end of September, but it won’t usually be before the end of October, when snow completely covers the ground.

Winter (December-April): The winter temperatures can vary anywhere between 0°C and -40°C. The average temperature in January is -14°C. But the cold is not biting because air is dry. There can be as much as one meter of snow and it usually lasts until May.

Spring (April-June): Spring is a time of a rapid and violent awakening of nature. Snow disappears during the first part of the May. The average temperature in the spring is somewhere between 0°C and +10°C. In the spring the nights can be still quite cold and the days warm.

More information can be found on Finnish Meteorological Institute website.

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