Is Finland the wettest country on Earth?
This structure traps fish in the stream, but you can also use it as a bridge
I know there are places that get more rain than Finland. There are probably even whole countries whose average rainfall exceeds Finland’s. I’m not just talking about average rainfall.
I’m talking about what happens to all that water after it hits the ground.
You have to walk to one side of it
In most countries rain soaks into the ground and then discharges into rivers that run into the sea.
In the bog
In Finland, the ground is already saturated, so it can’t absorb any more water. Plus, everything is so flat that the water can’t easily find its way to a river. So it forms puddles and squishy areas everywhere.
On survey
If people didn’t dig drainage ditches at regular intervals through the woods, the whole place would be a bog. Even with the drainage ditches, it’s pretty wet underfoot.
These have been dug everywhere in the woods
Even the names of the country suggest dampness. The Finns call their country Suomi. "Suo " in Finnish means "swamp.” Many Finns insist that this is a coincidence, but I wonder.
Plus, the name in Swedish and English is "Finland”, probably derived from the Roman word for the place, Fennia. A fen in southern England (which was a Roman colony) is a water-logged wetland.
It looks solid from here, but I dare you to walk out there!
Anyway, every Finn owns a good pair of rubber boots. They don’t let a little weather keep them inside!
In fact, Nokia the Finnish cell phone manufacturer used to make rubber boots.