Helsinki weather by month: averages, rainfall & climate trends
Finland's seaside capital sits on the Gulf of Finland in the far north: a snowy, hemiboreal climate of long, dark, cold winters and short, light-filled summers, tempered by the Baltic Sea. Helsinki weather by month: average temperatures, rainfall, extremes and how the climate has changed since 1940.
Today vs average
+2.2°Chigh above average
How it's changed
+2.2°Caverage temperature, 2016–2025 vs 1940–1949average temperature vs 1940–49122frost days a year now (2016–2025) · 160 in the 1940sfrost days a year · 160 in the 1940s13days above 25°C a year now (2016–2025) · 5 in the 1940sdays above 25°C · 5 in the 1940s+2.2°C vs the 1940s · see how it's changed →Weather by montha typical year, averaged over the full recordJanuary, rain 59 mmhigh −3°low −8°February, rain 46 mmhigh −3°low −9°March, rain 41 mmhigh 1°low −6°April, rain 43 mmhigh 7°low −1°May, rain 47 mmhigh 14°low 5°June, rain 63 mmhigh 18°low 10°July, rain 85 mmhigh 21°low 13°August, rain 90 mmhigh 20°low 12°September, rain 70 mmhigh 14°low 8°October, rain 63 mmhigh 8°low 3°November, rain 67 mmhigh 3°low −1°December, rain 65 mmhigh −1°low −5°wettest month August, 90 mm · 740 mm a yearsee month by month →Right now
What it's doing today vs the historical average for this date.Right now
3.0°
On this date: October 19
High above average · +2.2°C
- Highest since 1940: 13.5° · 2012
- Lowest since 1940: −8.7° · 2002
- One year ago: 9° / −1°
Every October 19 in history, coldest to hottest
Dots show daily highs (top) and lows (bottom) for each October 19 on record (n = 86). Outlined dots are today's forecast.
Area we sample
Each city's history comes from one ERA5 grid cell, about 28 km across, shown by the dashed box. Near mountains or coasts, conditions can vary across the cell.
Location & data
Historical weather for Helsinki is sampled from the ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at 60.17°N, 24.94°E, with daily records since 1940.
- Coordinates
- 60.17°N, 24.94°E
- Time zone
- Europe/Helsinki
- Period
- 1940–2026
- Data source
- ERA5 (ECMWF)
Last 30 days
27 of the last 30 days were warmer than the historical average for that date. Average difference: +2.7°C.
Each bar is one day, from morning low to afternoon high. Warm-colored bars are days whose mean ran above average; cool bars ran below. The dot inside the bar is the daily mean. The shaded band is the typical 10–90% range expected for that date. Average = the day's mean temperature averaged across every year of record (1940–2026) for that calendar date.
This date over the years
One dot per year, showing the mean temperature on this calendar date. Dots are warmer or cooler than the long-term average (dashed line); the shaded band is the typical 10–90% range, and the highlighted dot is today's forecast. Based on ERA5 reanalysis: modelled estimates, not station readings.
Weather by month
Average temperatures and rainfall for each month: a typical year, from the full record.Climate overview
Helsinki has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) on the cool, hemiboreal edge of that zone. Perched on the Gulf of Finland, it is moderated by the Baltic Sea, which keeps its winters milder than its far-northern location would imply. Its most striking feature is light: daylight stretches to nearly nineteen hours at midsummer and shrinks to under six in the depths of winter.
Winters are long, cold and snowy, though deep cold strikes only a few times a year thanks to the sea, and summers are short and mild. The warming end of the record has been creeping up: the city set a new all-time high in the summer of 2019, edging past a mark that had stood since the 1940s.
The year peaks in July, at around 21.1°C by mid-afternoon, with nights around 13.3°C. In February, the coolest month, afternoons reach about −3.4°C and nights dip to −8.7°C. Frost shows up on around 120 mornings a year.
In total, Helsinki averages about 740 mm of precipitation a year; August is usually the wettest month (90 mm) and March the driest (41 mm).
The record here starts in 1940, and since then the annual mean in Helsinki has climbed 2.2°C from the first ten years to the last ten. That last decade has also been the warmest in the record.
Climate graph (climograph)
July is the warmest month, February the coolest: a yearly swing of 23°C. Wettest month: August (~90 mm). Whole year averages ~740 mm of rain.
Bars = average monthly rainfall (right axis). Lines = average daily high and low (left axis). Average = each month's value averaged across every year of record (1940–2026).
Rainy days by month
About 105 rainy days a year: most in August (~11), fewest in March (~7).
Bars = average number of days with ≥ 2 mm per month. Hover for the monthly rainfall total.
Monthly wind
Average daily peak wind at 10 m, by month.
Monthly solar energy
Average daily incoming solar energy in megajoules per square metre: the record's own proxy for how sunny the month is.
Helsinki month by month: what to expect
Typical conditions for each month, averaged across the full record (since 1940). Daylight is the time from sunrise to sunset. Highest and Lowest are the most extreme values in the ERA5 dataset (modelled since 1940), so they can differ from official weather-station readings.
| Month | Avg high | Avg low | Rain | Rainy days | Daylight | Highest | Lowest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | −3.3° | −8.2° | 59 mm | 9 | 6.3 h | 7.8° (2020) | −36.0° (1987) |
| February | −3.4° | −8.7° | 46 mm | 7 | 8.8 h | 8.6° (1990) | −32.4° (1966) |
| March | 0.5° | −6.0° | 41 mm | 7 | 11.3 h | 15.2° (2007) | −23.7° (1942) |
| April | 6.7° | −0.5° | 43 mm | 7 | 14.2 h | 21.4° (1986) | −13.2° (1960) |
| May | 13.7° | 5.0° | 47 mm | 7 | 16.9 h | 27.4° (1993) | −5.4° (1941) |
| June | 18.5° | 10.2° | 63 mm | 8 | 18.5 h | 29.8° (2021) | 1.9° (1975) |
| July | 21.1° | 13.3° | 85 mm | 10 | 17.8 h | 32.0° (2019) | 5.2° (2009) |
| August | 19.6° | 12.2° | 90 mm | 11 | 15.4 h | 30.4° (2010) | 3.3° (2007) |
| September | 14.4° | 8.1° | 70 mm | 9 | 12.5 h | 25.4° (1968) | −4.0° (1986) |
| October | 8.2° | 3.5° | 63 mm | 9 | 9.7 h | 17.5° (1984) | −12.9° (1992) |
| November | 2.7° | −0.9° | 67 mm | 10 | 7.0 h | 13.4° (2022) | −18.6° (1988) |
| December | −0.7° | −5.0° | 65 mm | 10 | 5.5 h | 10.2° (2015) | −30.6° (1978) |
How it's changed
Year-by-year signals from 1940 to today.Climate stripes
Annual mean shifted from 1940–1949 to 2016–2025 by +2.2°C.
Each vertical stripe is one year. Color encodes how much that year's annual mean differed from the long-term average. Average = each year's annual mean compared to the average of all years (1940–2026). cooler ← → warmer
Annual mean temperature
Long-term trend: +0.29°C per decade.
One point per year, showing the temperature averaged across the whole year. The dashed line is the least-squares long-term trend. Based on ERA5 reanalysis: modelled estimates, not station readings.
Seasonal warming
Dec–Feb is warming fastest: +0.42°C per decade.
Each faint line is one three-month period's average per year; the bold dashed line is its long-term trend. Different parts of the year often warm at different rates. Based on ERA5 reanalysis: modelled estimates, not station readings.
Hot days vs frost days
Days ≥ 25°C per year: 4.9 early in the record → 13.4 recently. Frost days: 160 → 122.
Thin lines are raw yearly counts; thick lines are the smoothed trend that removes year-to-year noise. The hot-day threshold is auto-picked per city so the line actually moves. Average = a centered 5-year rolling average to smooth weather noise.
Yearly hot & cold extremes
Hottest day since 1940 in 2019, coldest in 1987: 32.0°C / −36.0°C.
One point per year: the single hottest and coldest day recorded that year.
Annual rainfall
~740 mm/year on average. Last decade: +7% vs that average. Long-term trend: +9 mm per decade.
One bar per year of total rainfall. Dashed line is the long-term average. Average = the average annual rainfall across every year of record (1940–2026).
Day-by-day grid
Each tiny square is one calendar day across the full record, about 30,000 days per city. Use the mode switch above the chart: Anomaly colors each day by how far it ran from the historical average for that date (red = warmer, blue = cooler), Daily mean temp shows the absolute mean temperature for the day (useful to see seasons and heatwaves), and Precipitation shows daily rainfall (useful to spot wet/dry seasons and droughts). Average = the long-term average for that calendar date (1940–2026).
Frequently asked questions about Helsinki
Which is the warmest month in Helsinki?
How does today's temperature in Helsinki compare to the historical average?
How much has Helsinki warmed since 1940?
How much does it rain in Helsinki?
What is the average temperature in Helsinki?
What are the average temperatures in Helsinki by month?
What is the weather like in Helsinki in summer?
What is the weather like in Helsinki in winter?
What is the weather like in Helsinki in spring?
What is the weather like in Helsinki in autumn?
How many days a year does it rain in Helsinki?
Weather in nearby cities
- Tallinn · Estonia11°/4°today+2.9°vs average
- Lahti8°/1°today+1.8°vs average
- Turku9°/0°today+1.1°vs average
- Tampere7°/0°today+0.5°vs average
- Jyväskylä7°/−2°today+1.6°vs average
- Vasyl'evsky Ostrov · Russia9°/3°today+2.4°vs average
- Admiralteisky · Russia9°/4°today+2.7°vs average
- Petrogradka · Russia9°/3°today+2.7°vs average
- Saint Petersburg · Russia9°/4°today+2.8°vs average
- Centralniy · Russia9°/3°today+2.8°vs average