Lapland in Brief

Temperature: average temperature in winter is –13˚C. Sometimes the temperature falls to below –30˚C. Usually in summer the temperature is around +14 - 20˚C. However it varies greatly and it can be as hot as +30˚C.
Surface area: 93 937 km². Lapland is larger than the Benelux countries put together.
Population: about 190 000; about 7 000 are indigenous Sámi. 
Reindeer: about 200 000
Population density: 2 people/km²
Arctic Circle: the latitude north of which the sun does not set in summer or rise in winter for at least one day. Most of Lapland is north of the Arctic Circle, which passes through Rovaniemi.

Snow Snow comes to Lapland in October or November and it melts in April or May. There’s usually around half a metre of snow, even a metre in some places. The snow is at its finest in March.
Ice The rivers and lakes get such a thick ice cover that you can drive a truck over them. During winter season the ice cover carries lots of skiers and sunday walkers.  It’s wonderfully slippery on a horizontal surface!
The Northern Lights - Aurora Borealis A beautiful colourful light show in the Northern skies. They result from the collision of solar particles hurled by the sun into the atmosphere. The Northern Lights can often be seen on cloudless nights from September to October and February to March.
Winter Twilight During winter, the sun doesn’t rise north of the Arctic Circle at all for a few weeks from the end of November to mid January. The winter twilight isn’t depressingly dark; rather it’s a blue-grey. In Rovaniemi, on the Arctic Circle, the sun rises for a couple of hours.
Midnight Sun The sun never sets at night during summer on the Arctic Circle and north of it. The 24-hour light is at its peak for almost two and a half months. You can see the midnight sun in Rovaniemi from 6 June to 7 July, in Saariselkä from 22 May to 20 July and in Levi from 27 May to 17 July