Even we meteorologists don't see something like this every day: It's significantly warmer along the Arctic Circle than in other parts of southern Europe. This is due to an unusually strong low for the time of year.

If you are looking for summer warmth, you will also find it in northern Scandinavia and the temperatures didn´t stop climbing. For example, in the big city, Oulu in northern Finland is near 86F or 30C Tuesday afternoon. Even in Tromsø, Norway one of the northernmost cities in Europe, it is significantly warmer than Berlin, as the following temperature comparison shows:

The responsible storm, coined Zacharias was one of the factors responsible for the great contrasts between Northern and Central Europe. It moved from southern Europe via Slovenia and Poland to the Baltic Sea.

On the east side, it carried very warm and humid air from the Mediterranean Sea towards Scandinavia. On the west side of the low, on the other hand, it drew in much cooler air, some of which also came from the polar regions.

Zacharias arrived in Scandinavia and established itself there. It still has the warm air from the Mediterranean Sea in its luggage. As a result, it is now very warm in Norway and Finland for the time of year.

These scenarios can happen anywhere in the world as long as a storm is placed at the “sweet spot” and there are lucky ones with cooler weather to the west of the storm and scorching ones to the east of the system.