Finland Natural Environment

Finland is situated in the Fenno-Scandia region of northern Europe, and has land borders with Russia and Sweden to the east and west and Norway to the north.  Its southeast, southwest and west boundaries are surrounded by the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia, respectively.  The country has an area of 337,030 sq km, 10% of which is made up of inland waters and thousands of lakes.  About one-third of the length of the country from north to south is within the Artic Circle.  It has a coastline of over about 1,120 km, not including its many thousands of islands.

The terrain of the country consists of plains, and rugged and indented coastlines in the south and west facing the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Bothnia.  Most of the thousands of islands are located off the coast in the south as part of the archipelago of the Åland Islands in the Baltics, and along the southern coast in the Gulf of Finland.  The central region is covered by plateaus with most of the 60,000 lakes.  The northern region consists of higher grounds covered by forests, with the Haltia mountain (at 1,328 m above sea level) in the extreme north at the border with Norway being the highest point in the country.

Finland's capital, Helsinki, is located on the country's southern coast.

Finland has a artic climate with mild summers and very cold winters, although it is moderated by the warm Gulf Stream and westerly winds.  The average temperature in the winter ranges from -14°C to -3°C, and the summer ranges from 13°C to 18°C.  There is a long period of snow in the far north of at least 250 days, whereas the Baltic coastal region has snow cover of about 90 days, and average annual precipitation is about 43 cm in the north versus 71 cm in the south.

With the country being close to the Artic, in winter, the number of days with continuous darkness without daylight increases as one moves north.  In the far north it is about 2 months in a year; in the far south the number of daylight hours is limited to about 6 hours a day during midwinter.  One can see the aurora borealis or northern lights on display. 

In the summer, the number of days of continuous daylight increases as one goes farther north. In the far north, there is 24-hour daylight for more than two months in a year; in the south, continuous daylight averages about 19 hours a day in midsummer.