Utö () is a small island in the

Archipelago Sea The Archipelago Sea (, ) is a part of the Baltic Sea between the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and the Sea of Åland, within Finnish territorial waters. By some definitions it contains the List of archipelagos by number of islands, larges ...

in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

and belongs to Finland's

Pargas Pargas () 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 central parts, t ...

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

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

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

Name

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

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 lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

pilot station A pilot station is an onshore headquarters for maritime pilots, or a place where pilots can be hired from. To get from a pilot station to an approaching ship, pilots need to use fast vessels to arrive in time, i.e. a pilot boat. History Histor ...

, 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 (FDF) (; ) 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 becomes part of the Finnish Defence For ...

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 in September 1994, and also helped rescue the survivors of the SS Park Victory sinking. The Utö lighthouse is painted to resemble the

signal flag Flag signals can mean any of various methods of using flags or pennants to send signals. Flags may have individual significance as signals, or two or more flags may be manipulated so that their relative positions convey symbols. Flag signals allo ...

"H", indicating the

maritime pilot A maritime pilot, marine pilot, harbor pilot, port pilot, ship pilot, or simply pilot, is a mariner who has specific knowledge of an often dangerous or congested waterway, such as harbors or river mouths. Maritime pilots know local details s ...

station. Its light signal is four short flashes, the same as the

Morse code Morse code is a telecommunications method which Character encoding, encodes Written language, text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code i ...

"H".

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 cold ...

( Dfb) (0˚C, 32˚F isotherm) or an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

( Cfb) (-3˚C, 26,6˚F isotherm) with mild summers and moderately cold and relatively long but late winters compared to the nearby southern mainland Finland because of seasonal lag caused by the

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