Rovaniemi

Sister cities

• Narvik
• Harbin
• Neustrelitz
• Kassel
• Grindavíkurbær
• Cadillac
• St. Johann in Tirol
• Kiruna Municipality
• Ajka
• Alanya
• Veszprém
• Olsztyn

History

Periodic clearance of new land for agriculture and the practice of slash-and-burn cultivation began around 750–530 BC. Artifacts found in the area suggest that an increasing number of travellers from Karelia in the east, Häme in the south and the Arctic Ocean coast in the north must have come there from 500 AD onwards. The Sami are indigenous to Sápmi. Rovaniemi is first mentioned by name in official documents in 1453, existing as a set of small villages whose inhabitants earned their living mainly in agriculture and animal husbandry—with fishing and hunting the most important offshoots. The exploitation of Lapland's natural resources in the 1800s boosted Rovaniemi's growth. Extensive logging sites and gold fever attracted thousands of people to Lapland. As the mining of natural resources was increased, Rovaniemi became the business centre of the province of Lapland. The township decree was promulgated on 27 June 1928, as a result of which Rovaniemi seceded from the old rural municipality as its own market town on 1 January 1929. During World War II, Finland signed the Moscow Armistice on 19 September 1944 and was required to expel forces of its former German ally. In the Lapland War retreating German forces utilised scorched earth tactics, and though initially German General Lothar Rendulic ordered only the public buildings in Rovaniemi to be destroyed, on 13 October 1944, the German army received orders to destroy all the buildings in Rovaniemi, While the German rearguard was going about the destruction, an ammunition train in Rovaniemi station exploded and set fire to the wooden houses of the town. The German troops suffered many casualties, mainly from glass splinters. During these hostilities, 90% of all the buildings in Rovaniemi were destroyed. There is a…

Geography

Due to its location near the Arctic Circle, Rovaniemi has a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc) with short, pleasant summers, while the winters are long, cold and snowy. The city lies just south of the mean annual isotherm, but freezing in the soil is very limited even during the winter due to typical heavy snow cover. Its extreme northerly location combined with frequent overcast skies leads to very low levels of sunshine in the winter months; December averages just under six minutes of sunshine daily. The "midnight sun" is above the horizon from 7 June to 6 July (30 days). Winters are somewhat modified by marine air from the North Atlantic Current that ensures average temperatures are less extreme than expected for an inland area at such a northerly latitude. Nevertheless, Rovaniemi still has colder winters than areas at similar latitudes in Norway or Sweden. On 26 April 2019, Rovaniemi recorded its warmest April day on record with . The average annual temperature in Rovaniemi is . Snow stays on the ground 175 days a year on average. The lowest temperature ever recorded at the airport is , recorded on 28 January 1999. However, on the same day temperatures as cold as -47.5 C were recorded at nearby weather stations. The highest temperature ever recorded is , recorded on 18 July 2018 at the railway station. Despite the fact that Rovaniemi experiences polar day between 7 June and 6 July (30 days) it does not experience polar night. However, the sun barely gets above the horizon in the winter. Some of the neighborhoods are former rural villages, and the longest distance from said neighborhoods to the city center (a.k.a. "Rovaniemi proper") can be estimated to almost a hundred kilometers apart: * Alakorkalo * Ala-Nampa * Auttinseutu * Hirvas * Jaatila * Juotasniemi *…

Most-observed species

• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,507
• Fieldfare

  Turdus pilaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,808
• Black-headed Gull

  Chroicocephalus ridibundus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  1,446
• European Pied Flycatcher

  Ficedula hypoleuca (Pallas, 1764) · Aves
  1,401
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,061
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  877
• Willow Warbler

  Phylloscopus trochilus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  858
• Common Redpoll

  Acanthis flammea (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  735