Utö () is a small island in the Archipelago Sea in the

Baltic sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

and belongs to

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Pargas Pargas ( fi, Parainen) is a town and municipality of Finland, in the Archipelago Sea, the biggest archipelago in the world by the number of islands, 50,000. The big limestone mine in Pargas is the base of the main industry and except for the cent ...

municipality. It is the southernmost year-round inhabited island in

. Utö has an area of and the population was 40 ().

Name

The name of the island, ''Utö'', means "outer island" in

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

Description

The island has a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

pilot station Pilot Station ( esu, Tuutalgaq) is a city in Kusilvak Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 568 at the 2010 census, up from 550 in 2000. Geography Pilot Station is located at (61.936050, -162.883403), on the northern bank of t ...

, a small guest harbour, a shop and a post office. The island is also known from the marine weather observations that began in 1881. Due to the remoteness of the island, the island has its own local school. In former times, the

Finnish Defence Forces The Finnish Defence Forces ( fi, Puolustusvoimat, sv, Försvarsmakten) are the military of Finland. The Finnish Defence Forces consist of the Finnish Army, the Finnish Navy and the Finnish Air Force. In wartime the Finnish Border Guard (whic ...

kept a small station on the island, but left the island in 2005. The island is also known as the first rescue station of the

Estonia disaster The MS ''Estonia'' sank on Wednesday, 28 September 1994, between about 00:50 and 01:50 (UTC+2) as the ship was crossing the Baltic Sea, en route from Tallinn, Estonia, to Stockholm, Sweden. The sinking was one of the worst maritime disasters ...

in September 1994, and also helped rescue the survivors of the

SS Park Victory The SS ''Park Victory'' was a Victory-class cargo ship built during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding program. The ship was operated by the Seas Shipping Company. The ship launched on April 21, 1945, near the end of the war. The sh ...

sinking.

Climate

The annual average temperature (1981–2010 data) at Utö is , with mean annual precipitation . Average snow-covered period last from 23 January to 15 March. The open sea areas around Utö are covered by ice only approximately every five years. Utö has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(

Dfb DFB may refer to: * Deerfield Beach, Florida, a city * Decafluorobutane, a fluorocarbon gas * Dem Franchize Boyz, former hip hop group, Atlanta, Georgia * Dfb, Köppen climate classification for Humid continental climate * Distributed-feedback ...

) with cold to mild summers and moderately cold, very long winters that last longer than nearby southern mainland Finland because of seasonal lag caused by the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

References

External links

Utö Island Website

Utö Atmospheric and Marine Research Station
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uto, Finland Finnish islands in the Baltic Pargas Landforms of Southwest Finland

Name

Description

Climate

See also

References

External links