Essay by Eric Worrall
Who will save the Fins from an unexpected outbreak of beach weather?
‘No country is safe’: deadly Nordic heatwave supercharged by climate crisis, scientists say
Historically cool nations saw hospitals overheating and surge in drownings, wildfires and toxic algal blooms
Damian Carrington Environment editorThu 14 Aug 2025 15.00 AEST
The prolonged Nordic heatwave in July was supercharged by the climate crisis and shows “no country is safe from climate change”, scientists say.
Norway, Sweden and Finland have historically cool climates but were hit by soaring temperatures, including a record run of 22 days above 30C (86F) in Finland. Sweden endured 10 straight days of “tropical nights”, when temperatures did not fall below 20C (68F).
Global heating, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, made the heatwave at least 10 times more likely and 2C hotter, the scientists said. Some of the weather data and climate models used in their analysis indicated the heatwave would have been impossible without human-caused climate breakdown.
The heat had widespread effects, with hospitals overheating and overcrowding and some forced to cancel planned surgery. At least 60 peopledrowned as outdoor swimming increased, while toxic algal blooms flourished in seas and lakes.
…
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/14/nordic-heatwave-climate-crisis-sweden-norway-finland
Unfortunately for the climate narrative this has happened before, like pretty much every year somewhere gets this hot. From the Finnish Meteorological Institute;
| Kemi-Tornion la | 30,8 | 14.7.1961 |
| Kruunupyyn | 26,0 | 20.6.1962 |
| Utti | 32,8 | 2.8.1963 |
| Kruunupyy | 31,0 | 15.6.1964 |
| Utti | 29,0 | 21.7.1965 |
| Varkaus Käpykangas | 32,0 | 20.6.1966 |
| Utti | 31,2 | 3.8.1967 |
| Lahti Laune | 30,4 | 19.6.1968 |
| Naantali | 31,5 | 1.8.1969 |
| Kemi-Tornion la | 32,9 | 20.7.1970 |
| Hattula Leteensuo | 29,3 | 6.7.1971 |
| Outokumpu | 33,6 | 8.7.1972 |
| Anjalankoski Anjala | 32,5 | 6.7.1973 |
| Utsjoki Kevo | 32,8 | 18.6.1974 |
| Ruotsinpyhtää Keitala | 32,0 | 8.8.1975 |
| Muhos kk Laitasaari | 27,0 | 14.8.1976 |
| Kankaanpää Niinisalo | 32,5 | 15.6.1977 |
| Kuopio Inkilänmäki | 29,6 | 1.8.1978 |
| Tuusula Hyrylä | 30,5 | 8.6.1979 |
| Lapinjärvi Ingermanninkylä | 31,5 | 31.7.1980 |
| Kotka Sunila | 29,6 | 10.7.1981 |
| Ylistaro Pelma | 30,2 | 16.7.1982 |
| Kotka Sunila | 32,3 | 10.7.1983 |
| Utti | 29,1 | 17.5.1984 |
| Lappeenranta | 30,4 | 10.8.1985 |
| Lapinjärvi Ingermanninkylä | 31,5 | 27.6.1986 |
| Utsjoki Kevo | 30,0 | 20.7.1987 |
| Utsjoki Kevo | 32,9 | 20.7.1988 |
| Lapinjärvi Ingermanninkylä | 31,1 | 9.7.1989 |
| Utsjoki Kevo | 29,2 | 25.6.1990 |
| Lapinjärvi Ingermanninkylä | 30,0 | 31.7.1991 |
| Vihti Maasoja | 32,2 | 11.8.1992 |
| Lapinjärvi Ingermanninkylä | 30,0 | 20.5.1993 |
| Jyväskylä | 33,3 | 28.7.1994 |
| Ylämaa Ylijärvi | 31,2 | 15.6.1995 |
| Utti | 28,2 | 21.8.1996 |
| Kauhava lentokenttä | 31,5 | 1.7.1997 |
| Joensuu | 32,0 | 16.6.1998 |
| Joensuu, Vieremä Kaarakkala | 32,5 | 16.7.1999 |
| Inari Sevettijärvi | 32,4 | 19.7.2000 |
| Savonlinna Ruunavuori | 31,9 | 18.7.2001 |
| Pori | 30,0 | 13.8.2002 |
| Mietoinen Saari | 33,3 | 15.7.2003 |
| Inari Sevettijärvi | 29,8 | 3.7.2004 |
| Inari Sevettijärvi | 30,8 | 9.7.2005 |
| Lammi Evo | 32,1 | 8.7.2006 |
| Parikkala Koitsanlahti | 30,7 | 14.8.2007 |
| Salo Kiikalan lentokenttä | 29,7 | 6.6.2008 |
| Jämsä Halli Lentoasemantie | 29,6 | 28.6.2009 |
| Liperi Joensuu lentoasema | 37,2 | 29.7.2010 |
| Ylitornio Meltosjärvi | 32,8 | 10.6.2011 |
| Lieksa Lampela | 31,0 | 30.7.2012 |
| Liperi Tuiskavanluoto | 32,4 | 26.6.2013 |
| Pori Rautatieasema | 32,8 | 4.8.2014 |
| Kouvola Utti Lentoportintie | 31,4 | 3.7.2015 |
| Utsjoki Kevo | 29,1 | 23.7.2016 |
| Utsjoki Kevo | 27,6 | 28.7.2017 |
| Vaasa Klemettilä | 33,7 | 18.7.2018 |
| Porvoo Emäsalo | 33,7 | 28.7.2019 |
| Kankaanpää Niinisalo lentokenttä | 33,5 | 25.6.2020 |
| Heinola Asemantaus | 34,0 | 15.7.2021 |
| Pori lentoasema | 32,9 | 28.6.2022 |
| Rauma Pyynpää | 33,6 | 7.8.2023 |
| Kuopio Savilahti Heinola Asemantaus | 31,4 | 28.6.2024 |
Where I live in subtropical Queensland, we call temperatures above 86F “Summer”. But I can see such temperatures might be a bit of a shock to people who are used to wearing sweaters and overcoats all year round.
Here’s some Aussie advice for surviving Nordic Heatwaves:
- Staying hydrated does not mean doubling down on your usual high alcohol winter warmer beer.
- Peel off some layers. You won’t die from hypothermia if you only wear one layer when the outdoor temperature is above 90F.
- Cook the reindeer outside in a fire pit. That way the house won’t get too hot.
- It’s OK to let the kitchen, living room and bedroom fires go out. There will be plenty of time to light the fires again when temperatures drop.
- Swimming is a skill which requires a little practice to master. Learning to swim is best attempted when sober.
Who knows, if this climate crisis continues, it might even be worth Fins installing a few backyard swimming pools.
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Being in Texas, considering 30C very hot is laughable.
Ditto – where I’m at in an area routinely above 105°F+ in the summer, nights are even sometimes 90°F or a bit higher. Around here, all the locals would say 93°F for a daytime summer temperature would be a really nice pleasant change of pace. Any Scandinavian relatives over there descended from my Viking ancestors would disown me for not liking seafood or sea-faring boating, and that from getting used to the heat, I now turn on my heater for anything less than 74°F.
93F in August in Oklahoma is downright balmy.
But you’re set up for that in Oklahoma, right?
Why would they be set up for it in Finland?
How much is it going to cost places like Finland to adapt to these rising temperatures?
A brief patch of warmer weather. How lucky for them. 🙂
And no evidence of human causation unless measured in the middle of ever expanding cities.
They don’t have to adapt to them. Just tolerate for a day or so until they return to normal. Just like they did all the other times it got hot for a day or two.
I go on holiday to Gran Canaria a lot , where temperature is usually 20+c but can go up to 40C . Always lots of Scandinavians on holiday there soaking up the regular 30C . Some of the retired Scandinavians over winter there rather than face the brutal winters back home .
Most Vikings went South on their cultural trips and a lot of them settled in those places.
No, it will cost them zero, zip, nada, nothing. 86F is not “life threatening”. It is pleasant. Have a lemonade. We get temps 10 degrees warmer than that and do not own an air conditioner. Don’t need one. We don’t melt when it gets pleasantly warm. Jumping Jeremiah, Nail Brain. TRY NOT TO FREAK OUT! Your extreme paranoia about nothing is painful to observe. Put a cork in it.
“pleasantly warm”
That’s the term I was looking for! 🙂
Oh Noes … What will they do??? … go jump in a fjord.
“go jump in a fjord.”
Poor FN.. pining away…. like a dead parrot !!
Oh wait, that was a Norwegian, wasn’t it. !
Well, since the temps are not PERMANENTLY that high they will get over it.
“How much is it going to cost places like Finland to adapt to these rising temperatures?”
All Finland has to do is wait a few days and the high pressure system that is causing this heat will move away and take the heat with it.
You give the impression that this kind of heat is going to be a permanent feature of Finland. I think you are wrong. This is a short-term weather event, not caused by CO2, but by how the high and low pressure systems of the world line up.
Here is the Nullschool view. The center of the high pressure system affecting Finland is marked. The high pressure system is bringing warm air into Finland.
Note that the same high pressure system is heating up both the UK and Finland.
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2025/08/17/1100Z/wind/isobaric/500hPa/orthographic=-13.70,52.52,742/loc=-2.823,57.099
Good point, Tom. I guess we are going to have to suffer through many more “weather is climate” articles until it gets better.
Every time I hear of another heat wave, I look at Nullschool and discover there is a high pressure system hovering over the affected area.
It’s just weather. No CO2 involved.
You need to look at some data. The world has been cooling for around 4000 years, with warming periods caused by natural cycles getting less warm every time.
You will sleep better.
ACs are cheap. They probably already have good insulation for the winter.
OPEN THE WINDOWS.
I was in Scotland in 1990 when they were undergoing a heat wave. At restaurants, the wait staff would remind us we hadn’t signed on to Kyoto. We Americans heard about it on the television and dressed accordingly.
Were we ever fooled. We’re out there in t-shirts, shorts, and sandals. The high was 69 degrees Fahrenheit. More wing than we anticipated. We were freezing (well, uncomfortably cold to the point of shivering). The locals of course were wearing underclothes, shirts, vests, and jackets. It was really hard for us to feel sorry for them and the fact they were melting. How hard is adaptation when all you have to do is shed a few layers? Even American children can figure that out – and they’re none too bright!
Sorry – 1995, not 1990.
I expect Texas is set up to cope with such temperatures.
Maybe not everywhere else is?
Finns probably vacation in countries
where that is common.
Spain, Greece, Italy, Turkey, are most popular.
As shown, temperatures around that happen every year in Finland…. especially in cities.
I’m sure they will cope, so long as they avoid people doing too much petty whinging.
The Finns make and use a lot of nice boats Axopar being one of, these are semi open boats for summer use , so they must regularly get some nice weather . I was doing about 22 knots in Southampton water the other day and an Axopar came flying past me at 30+ knots , they are really good boats .
The poor pathetic Finns are unprepared for 86F, and so the rest of us should all live in mud huts in the cold and dark while we starve to death and donate every scrap of our money to Libtard Alarmunists who bask on jet set beaches sipping gin and eating caviar?
Get a grip Nail Head. It’s over. You’re over. The Panic is done and gone like ox carts and witch burning.
The solar cycle from maximum to minimum and back to maximum takes approximately 22 years. Even then there are events that fall outside of the cycle and cause fluctuations, the Hunga-Tonga eruption for example. When you have lived through 2 or 3 of these cycles you start to notice the pattern. From your comments in this thread and others I calculate your age to be around 12 so you might be forgiven for falling for the propaganda you have had pumped into you since birth. You’re going to look very silly if you’re still spouting this nonsense when you reach retirement age.
Adapt or die. It is the Human Way.
Is this why so many Muslims are migrating northwards? I wonder, if that were to suddenly become a meme, which would stop first — climate hysteria or immigration?
At least, they will not cross the polar circle, as at Ramadan, it will be a huge problem to them …
I like the way you think! Use leftards’ stupidity against them!
There hasn’t been anything special this summer. We had few weeks of warm weather. Those people who drown were immigrants who went swimming without knowing how to swim. There is algae every summer if it’s warm. It’s usually cool here so many buildings doesn’t have AC, like most apartments.
For sure, the story is ridiculous.
86F is 12 degrees BELOW the average human body temperature, these people are clearly weak to fend of the air that is cooler than themselves even if it was 93F it is still definitely cooler than the human body the law of thermodynamics is in your favor.
But you must be dressed like the Swedish Bikini Team
Do you have a problem with the Swedish Bikini team?
I have no problem taking advantage of what little bikini weather we get where I live even though I can’t claim to be a prime centerfold candidate these days 😉
Darn, I ‘google imaged’ for “Swedish Bikini team” and not one picture of Swedish ladies in bikinis. 🙁
Did a bit more hunting .. Found 🙂 🙂
But only if you LOOK like the SBT.
Blonde hair is a must.
My wife and I were in Finland in the middle of July. What heatwave?
People visiting from southern climes seem to be often surprised how hot the northern regions can get in summertime…Sun shinning 22 hours a day….
Global heating, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, made the heatwave at least 10 times more likely and 2C hotter, the screaming chicken littles cried !
FIFT
This Finn lives in Tulsa, OK and it is 97F and humid today. Been like this all month. Born and raised in the UP of Michigan on the south shore of Lake Superior…could use some of that right now.
They’re Finnish(ed)
There’s still hope for the Himalayans.
If these Nordic heatwaves are so deadly, what decline in the northern European population has been noted?. The answer is none because such weather fluctuations are the norm worldwide, a fact that the alarmists hate to acknowledge. Fortunately climate realists consistently deride or ignore their rantings and go on with life making whatever weather adjustments necessary.
Anecdotally, in the past 50 years, I have been in Sweden, in Kazan, and in Siberia when the thermometer reached 36C (39C in Kazan). Such temperatures cannot be so unusual. Exceptionally hot weather does not coincide just with my occasional summer visits. These were heat waves, but widely appreciated. Swimming in the Baltic on the Swedish North-East coast was a delight which usually it is not. The Yenisei River near Krasnoyarsk was finally ice-free in August, but in June was still ice choked south of the large hydroelectric dam. People there enjoyed cool kvass from large yellow wheeled barrels. It was good.
Continental climates show large swings.I have also been in Yekaterinburg and in Minneapolis in -40C. I arrived in Minneapolis direct from Honolulu a change of over 65C.
Ice skating was a bit slower than usual.
“Scientists” need to stop yammering, I say.
OK, that made me laugh. 😁
Many houses in the old south came with two cooking areas. One by the fireplace for the winter.
One, a pit outside, for the summer.
Actually they had outside kitchens, not some hole in the ground, for majority of cooking/food prep and storage. I remember my great grandmother’s house in Pearl River County, MS. Funny, I can’t remember the name of the hurricane that finally took the house, I clearly remember walking off the back porch to the kitchen and helping make biscuits while the coffee was boiling and bacon was cooking on that big iron stove.
Sometimes called a summer kitchen.
Actually, Great Britain is safer from climate change. That land bridge – Doggerland – from the Continent is now – the Dogger Bank – under the North Sea thanks to climate change and rising seas. But for climate change, Napoleon, Hitler and the French and Spanish before them could have marched their armies across with disasterous consequences.
It’s an ill wind…
No country is safe. From WEATHER.
“story Tip” Seattle Times says owning a dog increases your carbon footprint.
and reading the Seattle Times makes one dumber than one’s dog
Wow, I wonder how many dogs are needed to meet Al Gore’s carbon footprint ??
101 Dalmatians ??
Not the ‘carbon’ footprint I’d be concerned about !!
Good, I’ll get 10!
5000 btu window ac unit costs about $150.
Assuming that wind and solar haven’t made electricity s expensive that you can’t afford to run the AC.
People from Finland are Finns. The death statistic is interesting. Even in the raging heat of global warming those Finnish lakes are no warmer. Easy to drown in 40 degree water.
99% of Finns know how to swim. There are literally thousands of lakes so everyone has access to water. And every school class goes to indoor swimming pool couple of times a year.
The ones who drown are older men and they are usually found clothed with their zipper open. What happens is that they drink too much, go out to fish in a small boat, then has to take a leak over the side and fall into the water.
More recently Finland has been taking in a lot of people from Africa and Middle East, and these do go swimming without knowing how.
“…every school class goes to indoor swimming pool couple of times a year.”
Water temp: 80 F.
Bay of Bothnia is too cold even in summer for swimming. It’s a salt water bay that freezes over in winter. The freshwater lakes in Finland are between 50 – 70 degrees F in summer. Too cold for most pleasure swimming and deadly for people with heart or breathing issues.
the Finns invented saunas. They can stand heat.
Speaking for Sweden where i live I can confirm that this years summer had a period of nice weather but was unremarkable.The thing causing some excitement in the media was that a couple of stations in northern Sweden had an unusually long heat wave in July. Here a heat wave is defined as a period och at least five consecutive days with a maximum temperature above 25C (77F).
In Haparanda this yeasr heat wave lasted 14 days which is the longest since 1924 whent here was a heat wave lasting 18 days.
July mean temperatures in the region ended up second or third highest in general with one station Jokkmokk recording their warmest July since records began 1860.
Daily maximum temperatures where typical for a swedish heat wave and no records where recorded.
As the normal mpnthly mean temperature for July in northern Sweden is 13-16C (55-60F) this was a welcome change for most people.
“with one station Jokkmokk recording their warmest July since records began 1860.”
I think we can be pretty sure that Jokkmokk has expanded considerably since 1860.
I wonder what the site these temperature reading were made at, looks like now compared to then..
“I think we can be pretty sure that Jokkmokk has expanded considerably since 1860.”
Really?
FYI: The weather station is at a small regional airport ~ 17mls to the SE …
https://mapcarta.com/13556678/Map
Gee Ant, are they still flying the same type of aircraft as in 1860. 😉
The area is rural with the town itself having around 2700 inhabitants with a declining population trend since the sixties. The station has been moved through the years but there is very little urban development, in the area so the data should be of good quality.
This years monthly mean for July was 18.8C beating the previious record of 18.5C set in 2014 so there is no cause for alarm due to extreme temperatures.
Google Earth shows lots of newish buildings and plenty of things like paved roads and even roundabouts.
But Ant says the temperature is measured at the airport, which didn’t exist in 1860.
Copied from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helsinki#Climate
”Helsinki has a cold hemiboreal humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb, Trewartha Dcbo). Due to the moderating influence of the Baltic Sea and the North Atlantic Current (see also Extratropical cyclone), winter temperatures are higher than the northern location would suggest, with an average of −4 °C (25 °F) in January and February.
Winters in Helsinki are significantly warmer than in the north of Finland, and the snow season in the capital is much shorter due to its location in the extreme south of Finland and the urban heat island effect. Temperatures below −20 °C (−4 °F) occur only a few times a year. However, due to the latitude, the days around the winter solstice are 5 hours and 48 minutes long, with the sun very low (at noon the sun is just over 6 degrees in the sky), and the cloudy weather at this time of year exacerbates the darkness. Conversely, Helsinki enjoys long days in summer, with 18 hours and 57 minutes of daylight around the summer solstice.
The average maximum temperature from June to August is around 19 to 22 °C (66 to 72 °F). Due to the sea effect, especially on hot summer days, daytime temperatures are slightly cooler and nighttime temperatures higher than further inland.
The highest temperature recorded in the city was 33.2 °C (91.8 °F) on 28 July 2019 at the Kaisaniemi weather station, breaking the previous record of 33.1 °C (91.6 °F) set in July 1945 at the Ilmalaweather station.
The lowest temperature recorded in the city was −34.3 °C (−29.7 °F) on 10 January 1987, although an unofficial low of −35 °C (−31 °F) was recorded in December 1876.
Helsinki Airport (in Vantaa, 17 km north of Helsinki city centre) recorded a maximum temperature of 33.7 °C (92.7 °F) on 29 July 2010 and a minimum of −35.9 °C (−33 °F) on 9 January 1987. Precipitation comes from frontal passages and thunderstorms. Thunderstorms are most common in summer.”
It was 97F at my house yesterday. It will be the same for the next few days.
It looks like my house may not see 100F this year. If that is the case, then this is the first year I can remember when we didn’t hit 100F. This is highly unusual for this part of the country. It’s almost like there is a change in the weather. A cooling change.
Normally, around here we have days and weeks well above 100F. Not this year, and the hottest part of the year was just passed (August 15), and the forecast is for cooler temperatures.
I’ll be interested to see what the UAH chart looks like next time. We are certainly having a cool-down here. I wonder if that is happening all over the world? Excerpt maybe in Finland and the UK. 🙂
So, these countries are going to collapse and die because of 22 days of warm weather in the MIDDLE of summer? Time for them to be gone, then. Evolution marches on and they have failed. Bubye.
“Who will save the Fins from an unexpected outbreak of beach weather?”
I love it! Eric, you’re a genius.
In fact, that’s kind of the theme for the climate scam: spinning small benefits as great harms.
The best evidence is that Nobel laureate Svante Arrhenius was right: thanks to CO2 emissions:
As Arrhenius recognized (over a century ago!), one of the nice things about so-called “global warming” is that it isn’t really very “global.” It disproportionately warms frigid high latitudes, especially in winter, making their brutal winters a bit milder and their short growing seasons a bit longer (which are good things). Over the last 3/4 century Canadian growing seasons have lengthened by as much as a week at each end (even more in some places), which is a very welcome change.
“Global warming” affects the tropics less. That’s nice, because the tropics are warm enough already.
Do northern European people still sew their clothing on?
A few years back, we took the discount cruise to Alaska. One of the stops is a Icy Strait Point, a a large bay on a native corporation island. Being a warm day, and the water in the bay rather warm and calm, we took a dip. The local people were aghast.
Humans are relatively tall, slim (or should be) and have little hair. We sweat all over. We are clearly warm weather animals. We can tolerate considerable heat if we have water but cold will kill us quickly without clothing or a heat source.
Humans are relatively tall,
slim (or should be)and have little hair.So long as I remove that middle part, I can relate.. particularly the last bit.
I experienced the Green House Effect personally last Friday.
Heading down I95 south it was a pleasant 82 F according to the thermometer under the hood.
Traffic stopped. For the next 15 minutes I watched the temperature rise to 117 F.
Cabin was comfortable with one window open.
Engine temperature did not change.
We started moving and the 117 F dropped. When we reached posted speed, it was back to 82 F.
Thermal energy, convected by the highway, accumulated under the hood in the same way a green house does not allow hot air to disperse. A very real Green House Effect.
It illustrates how blacktop has its own UHI equivalence.