March Weather at Ivalo Airport FinlandDaily high temperatures increase by 9°F, from 22°F to 32°F, rarely falling below 8°F or exceeding 40°F. Daily low temperatures increase by 8°F, from 7°F to 14°F, rarely falling below -16°F or exceeding 30°F. For reference, on July 21, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at Ivalo Airport typically range from 49°F to 64°F, while on January 25, the coldest day of the year, they range from 1°F to 16°F. The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average temperatures for the quarter of the year centered on March. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day. Bethel, United States (3,488 miles away) is the far-away foreign place with temperatures most similar to Ivalo Airport (view comparison). CloudsThe month of March at Ivalo Airport experiences gradually decreasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy decreasing from 77% to 72%. The clearest day of the month is March 26, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 28% of the time. For reference, on January 1, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 83%, while on July 5, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 46%. PrecipitationA wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At Ivalo Airport, the chance of a wet day over the course of March is increasing, starting the month at 12% and ending it at 17%. For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 38% on July 13, and its lowest chance is 12% on March 11. Over the course of March at Ivalo Airport, the chance of a day with only rain increases from 1% to 4%, the chance of a day with mixed snow and rain increases from 1% to 4%, and the chance of a day with only snow remains an essentially constant 10% throughout. RainfallTo show variation within the month and not just the monthly total, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day. The average sliding 31-day rainfall during March at Ivalo Airport is essentially constant, remaining about 0.2 inches throughout, and rarely exceeding 0.6 inches. SnowfallAs with rainfall, we consider the snowfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day. The average sliding 31-day snowfall during March at Ivalo Airport is essentially constant, remaining about 5.2 inches throughout, and rarely exceeding 10.2 inches or falling below 1.0 inches. SunDue to its extreme latitude, Ivalo Airport experiences polar day (also known as the midnight Sun) during the summer and polar night during the winter. These are periods of time in which the sun is continuously above or below the horizon for more than one day. The precise start and end dates of polar day and night vary from year to year and depend on the precise location and elevation of the observer, and the local topography. Neither polar day nor polar night occur during the month of March. Over the course of March at Ivalo Airport, the length of the day is very rapidly increasing. From the start to the end of the month, the length of the day increases by 4 hours, 4 minutes, implying an average daily increase of 8 minutes, 7 seconds, and weekly increase of 56 minutes, 50 seconds. The shortest day of the month is March 1, with 9 hours, 46 minutes of daylight and the longest day is March 31, with 13 hours, 50 minutes of daylight. The latest sunrise of the month at Ivalo Airport is 7:30 AM on March 1 and the earliest sunrise is 2 hours, 5 minutes earlier at 5:25 AM on March 30. The earliest sunset is 5:16 PM on March 1 and the latest sunset is 2 hours, 54 minutes later at 8:10 PM on March 31. Daylight saving time (DST) ends at 4:00 AM on March 31, 2024, shifting sunrise and sunset to be an hour earlier. The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation. MoonThe figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for March 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon.
HumidityWe base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night. The chance that a given day will be muggy at Ivalo Airport is essentially constant during March, remaining around 0% throughout. For reference, on July 21, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time, while on January 1, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time. WindThis section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages. The average hourly wind speed at Ivalo Airport is gradually decreasing during March, decreasing from 8.1 miles per hour to 7.3 miles per hour over the course of the month. For reference, on February 29, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 8.2 miles per hour, while on August 13, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 4.7 miles per hour. The hourly average wind direction at Ivalo Airport throughout March is predominantly from the south, with a peak proportion of 46% on March 2. Growing SeasonDefinitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere). The growing season at Ivalo Airport typically lasts for 3.1 months (96 days), from around May 28 to around August 31, rarely starting before May 12 or after June 12, and rarely ending before August 12 or after September 21. The month of March at Ivalo Airport is reliably fully outside of the growing season. Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F. The average accumulated growing degree days at Ivalo Airport are essentially constant during March, remaining around 0°F throughout. Solar EnergyThis section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation. The average daily incident shortwave solar energy at Ivalo Airport is increasing during March, rising by 1.5 kWh, from 0.8 kWh to 2.3 kWh, over the course of the month. TopographyFor the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Ivalo Airport are 68.607 deg latitude, 27.405 deg longitude, and 472 ft elevation. The topography within 2 miles of Ivalo Airport contains significant variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 600 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 499 feet. Within 10 miles contains significant variations in elevation (1,263 feet). Within 50 miles contains very significant variations in elevation (2,123 feet). The area within 2 miles of Ivalo Airport is covered by trees (74%), water (14%), and artificial surfaces (10%), within 10 miles by trees (89%), and within 50 miles by trees (67%) and herbaceous vegetation (14%). Data SourcesThis report illustrates the typical weather at Ivalo Airport, based on a statistical analysis of historical hourly weather reports and model reconstructions from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016. Temperature and Dew PointIvalo Airport has a weather station that reported reliably enough during the analysis period that we have included it in our network. When available, historical temperature and dew point measurements are taken directly from this weather station. These records are obtained from NOAA's Integrated Surface Hourly data set, falling back on ICAO METAR records as required. In the case of missing or erroneous measurements from this station, we fall back on records from nearby stations, adjusted according to typical seasonal and diurnal intra-station differences. For a given day of the year and hour of the day, the fallback station is selected to minimize the prediction error over the years for which there are measurements for both stations. The stations on which we may fall back are Sodankylä Airfield, Kittilä Airport, Kirkenes, and Enontekiö Airport. Other DataAll data relating to the Sun's position (e.g., sunrise and sunset) are computed using astronomical formulas from the book, Astronomical Algorithms 2nd Edition , by Jean Meeus. All other weather data, including cloud cover, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar flux, come from NASA's MERRA-2 Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis . This reanalysis combines a variety of wide-area measurements in a state-of-the-art global meteorological model to reconstruct the hourly history of weather throughout the world on a 50-kilometer grid. Land Use data comes from the Global Land Cover SHARE database , published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Elevation data comes from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) , published by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Names, locations, and time zones of places and some airports come from the GeoNames Geographical Database . Time zones for airports and weather stations are provided by AskGeo.com . Maps are © OpenStreetMap contributors. DisclaimerThe information on this site is provided as is, without any assurances as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. Weather data is prone to errors, outages, and other defects. We assume no responsibility for any decisions made on the basis of the content presented on this site. We draw particular cautious attention to our reliance on the MERRA-2 model-based reconstructions for a number of important data series. While having the tremendous advantages of temporal and spatial completeness, these reconstructions: (1) are based on computer models that may have model-based errors, (2) are coarsely sampled on a 50 km grid and are therefore unable to reconstruct the local variations of many microclimates, and (3) have particular difficulty with the weather in some coastal areas, especially small islands. 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