Climate

The climate in Kemijärvi is continental with relatively warm summers and cold winters. 40-50 % of rain falls on the ground as snow. Permanent snow cover falls in the middle of November and it disappears in the middle of May. The season with ice and snow on the ground lasts for nearly 7 months. The season with 24 hours of sunshine, with the sun not setting at all, lasts for three weeks in June – July (4.6. – 8.7.).

NORTHERN LIGHTS (Aurora Borealis)
is a light phenomenon that appears over the northern (and southern) polar regions of the earth on dark clear nights. The Finnish name for Northern Lights is “revontulet” which means “fox’s fire” after old Finnish mythology. The sun emits charged particles that collide with atoms and molecules, primarily oxygen and nitrogen, 80-1,000 km above the earth, that momentarily discharges a high state of energy. This discharge causes the glowing light. Northern Lights are most commonly shades of green, and sometimes white or red. Shades of blue are seen only during the best displays and yellow is very rare.

The Northern Lights appear mostly in September-October and in February-March, late in the evening or in the small hours of the morning, if the sky is clear. They can range from a dimmish peaceful belt, an active phenomenon that takes up half the sky or as a powerfully pulsating and dancing display that covers the entire heavens. If you are in a quiet place and the weather is calm and clear, you can sometimes hear weak sounds during a display of Northern Lights and the powerful geomagnetic storm associated with them.

The best places to look at the midnight sun, in the town centre:
- long bridges of the lake Kemijärvi
- "Kotavaara" view tower

Summer evening in Kemijärvi.	Midnight sun in the middle of July.