Nordic countries are relieved after battling an exceptional heat wave which shattered the hopes of foreigners seeking to cool off in the far north — a disappointment meteorologists warn is likely to be repeated.
Tourism has been on the rise in Nordic countries, driven in part by the trend of “coolcations” — where tourists flee the heat of the Mediterranean for milder temperatures in the north — but this year record-breaking temperatures last month dashed tourists’ hopes of escaping the intense heat.
The Finnish Meteorological Institute on Monday in a statement said that the country had just emerged from 22 days of temperatures of more than 30°C — the longest such heat wave since records began in 1961.
Photo: AFP
Last month was also the third-hottest month recorded in Norway since records began in 1901, with temperatures 2.8°C higher than the seasonal average nationwide, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute said.
A two-week heat wave, from July 12 to 25, was also the hottest ever recorded in the country.
So-called “tropical nights,” where the temperature does not drop below 20°C, have become commonplace in the region.
The unusually high temperatures have been a shock to tourists seeking to escape the heat elsewhere.
Moussaab El Bacha, a Stockholm resident, spoke about his parent’s surprise when they came over from Morocco to visit.
“They were actually quite surprised by the intensity of the heat here. They had expected a cooler break from the Moroccan summer, but instead it felt like the heat followed them all the way to Sweden,” he said. “It was a bit surreal for them to experience such high temperatures this far north — they kept saying: ‘Are we sure we didn’t just land in southern Spain?’”
In Haparanda, in Sweden’s far north, temperatures reached 25°C or above for 14 consecutive days last month, and in Jokkmokk, the heat wave lasted more than 15 days, something not seen in a century, the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) said.
In Rovaniemi, a Finnish town north of the Arctic Circle which bills itself as the hometown of Santa Claus, temperatures reached more than 30°C last week.
The municipality of Joensuu in southeastern Finland opened an ice rink for people to cool off in, to reduce pressure on local healthcare services, North Karelia’s regional healthcare services head Mikael Ripatti said.
Ripatti said emergency rooms had become overcrowded as people sought care for heat-related health issues.
“The aim was to provide a place to go if it was too hot at home,” Ripatti said.
Other cities opened up similar cooling facilities to the public, with a shop in Helsinki letting people lie down next to its cooling shelves.
The arctic is heating far faster than other parts of the planet. Of the continents overall, Europe has seen the fastest warming per decade since 1990, followed closely by Asia, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data showed.
“The length of the period and the high temperatures throughout the day in all parts of the country were very unusual this time,” Ketil Isaksen, a climate researcher with the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, said in a statement. “This type of heat wave has become more likely with climate change.”
Scientists say recurring heat waves are a marker of global warming, and are expected to become more frequent, longer and more intense.
“There have been heat waves in the past and there will continue to be heat waves in the future,” said Hannele Korhonen, a research professor at the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
As climate change drives up global temperatures, we are “exceeding the heat wave threshold more often, and the heat waves are hotter,” she added.
“An in-depth attribution study would be necessary to pinpoint or assess the role of climate change in the prolonged heat wave [that struck] northern Sweden,” said Sverker Hellstrom, a meteorologist at the SMHI.
However, “the frequency of such weather events has increased and may continue to rise in the future,” he added.
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