Page "Geography of Finland" Paragraph 15

Latitude is the principal influence on Finland's climate.

Because of Finland's northern location, winter is the longest season.

Only in the south coast summer is as long as winter.

On the average, winter lasts from early December to mid March in the archipelago and the southwestern coast and from early October to early May in Lapland.

This means that southern portions of the country are snow-covered about three to four months of the year and the northern, about seven months.

The long winter causes about half of the annual of precipitation in the north to fall as snow.

Precipitation in the south amounts to about annually.

Like that of the north, it occurs all through the year, though not so much of it is snow.