Finland's Arctic Lapland area swelters in record heatwave

Finland’s northernmost Arctic Lapland region has recorded its hottest temperature for more than a century at 33.6 degrees Celsius (92.5 Fahrenheit)

HELSINKI -- Finland’s northernmost Arctic Lapland region has recorded its hottest temperature for more than a century at 33.6 degrees Celsius (92.5 Fahrenheit), during a heatwave that's been afflicting the entire Nordic country for weeks. The temperature was measured Monday at Finland's northernmost Utsjoki-Kevo weather station near the border with Norway by the Finnish Meteorological Institute. The institute said there was only one higher historical measurement reported in Lapland — 34.7 C in the Inari Thule area, in July 1914. The beginning of July has been exceptionally warm in Lapland, one of Europe's last remaining wildernesses known for its extremely cold winters that attracts domestic and international nature lovers in both summer and winter. The region, Finland's largest by surface, host records for the coldest temperatures in the nation of 5.5 million.