Scorching Scandinavia: Record-breaking heat hits Norway, Finland and Sweden

(This story, originally published Tuesday afternoon, was updated Wednesday morning with more data.)

An intense heat dome has swelled over Scandinavia, pushing temperatures more than 20 degrees above normal and spurring some of the region’s hottest weather ever recorded. Even as far north as the Arctic Circle, the mercury has come close to 90 degrees.

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Normally, temperatures in Scandinavia during July warm to the comfortable 60s and 70s. This week, they have soared into the mid-80s to lower 90s. On Tuesday, Finland, Sweden, and Norway all saw temperatures reach at least 91 degrees (33 Celsius).

Since Monday, several locations have approached or surpassed their highest temperatures observed any day or month of the year. They include:

In central Norway,

Trondheim Airport hit 90.3 degrees (32.4 Celsius) Monday, an all-time record.
Snasa hit 88.9 degrees (31.6 Celsius) Monday, an all-time record.
Namsos hit 90.3 degrees (32.4 Celsius) Monday, just 0.4 degrees below its all-time record from 2014.
Mo i Rana and Namsskogan hit 90.7 degrees (32.6 Celsius) Tuesday, all-time records.

In Finland,

In northern Finland, all-time high temperature of 90 degrees (32.2 Celsius) and 89.2 degrees (31.8 Celsius) were set at Rovaniemi and Sodankyla Tuesday.
In southern Finland, Turku hit 91.9 degrees (33.3 Celsius) Tuesday, which was the highest temperature since 1914 when it reached 96.6 degrees (35.9 Celsius). And Helsinki witnessed one of its hottest two-day periods on record Sunday and Monday.

In Sweden,

In southern Sweden, Uppsala hit 93.9 degrees (34.4 Celsius) Monday, which was its highest temperature since 1975.
In northern Sweden, Kvikkjokk hit 90.5 degrees (32.5 Celsius) Tuesday, an all-time high.

French meteorologist Etienne Kapikian, who compiled many of these hot weather extremes, tweeted that Tuesday’s heat was particularly widespread throughout Finland, where temperatures were at least 86 degrees (30 degrees Celsius) across much of the country, from south to north.

To the west, Sweden’s national weather agency issued a rare heat warning for temperatures forecast to reach at least 86 degrees (30 degrees Celsius) five days straight in its central region, according to the Local. This same news organization reported the high temperatures have probably intensified a “historic wildfire outbreak” afflicting the country.

The heat dome responsible for the sweltering temperatures is predicted to very slowly drift eastward over the next several days.

“The heat is here to stay for a while,” said Joonas Koskela, a meteorologist with the Finnish news organization Yle.

Scandinavia is the latest region of the Northern Hemisphere to deal with exceptionally hot weather this summer. As we have previously reported, new all-time heat records have been set on every continent, including:

In North America: Multiple locations in Southern California; Denver; Montreal; Mount Washington, N.H.; and Burlington, Vt.
In Europe: Glasgow, Scotland; Shannon, Ireland; Belfast and Castlederg, Northern Ireland.
In Eurasia: Multiple locations in central and east Russia; Tbilisi, Georgia; and Yerevan, Armenia.
In the Middle East: Quriyat, Oman, which posted the world’s hottest low temperature ever recorded on June 28: 109 degrees (42.6 degrees Celsius).
In Africa: Ouargla, Algeria, which may have posted the highest temperature in Algeria and the entire African continent on July 5: 124.3 degrees (51.3 degrees Celsius).
In Asia: Taiwan, as well as multiple locations in Japan, may have posted its highest temperature on record.