Jatkamme matkaa riippumatta siitä, sataako.

Jatkamme comes from the verb jatkaa, meaning to continue.

The ending -mme marks 1st person plural, so:

• jatkan = I continue
• jatkat = you continue
• jatkaa = he/she/it continues
• jatkamme = we continue

So jatkamme means we continue.

This is a very common question, because Finnish often uses the partitive after certain verbs.

Here, matkaa is the partitive singular of matka (trip, journey).

With the verb jatkaa, the thing being continued is often put in the partitive:

• jatkaa matkaa = continue the journey
• jatkaa työtä = continue the work
• jatkaa keskustelua = continue the discussion

So jatkaa + partitive is a pattern you should learn as a set.

Riippumatta means regardless of or irrespective of.

It comes from the verb riippua, which means to depend. In this expression, it is a non-finite form that literally means something like without depending on.

So:

• riippumatta = regardless / irrespective / without depending on

In modern Finnish, riippumatta siitä, ... is best learned as a fixed expression meaning:

• regardless of whether ...
• regardless of the fact that ...

Siitä is the elative form of se:

• se = it / that
• siitä = from it / from that

The reason is that riippua normally takes the elative case:

• riippua jostakin = to depend on something

Because riippumatta comes from that same verb, the same case pattern remains:

• riippumatta siitä = regardless of that / regardless of whether

So even if the literal English feels strange, the Finnish structure is tied to the case pattern of riippua.

Sataako comes from the verb sataa, meaning to rain.

The ending -ko/-kö turns it into a yes/no question form:

• sataa = it is raining / it rains
• sataako? = is it raining? / does it rain?

In this sentence, sataako is not a direct question to another person. It is an embedded question, meaning it appears inside a larger sentence:

• riippumatta siitä, sataako = regardless of whether it is raining

In English, weather expressions usually need a dummy subject:

• it is raining

Finnish does not use a dummy it here. The verb stands by itself:

• sataa = it rains / it is raining

So sataako already contains the whole idea is it raining?, even though there is no separate subject word.

This is normal with weather verbs in Finnish.

In Finnish, -ko/-kö is a question particle that is usually attached to the word being questioned. In yes/no questions, it often attaches to the verb:

• Onko hän täällä? = Is he/she here?
• Tuletko? = Are you coming?
• Sataako? = Is it raining?

In embedded questions, the same thing happens:

• En tiedä, sataako. = I don’t know whether it’s raining.
• Riippumatta siitä, sataako. = Regardless of whether it’s raining.

So this is a very normal Finnish structure.

Finnish punctuation usually places a comma before a subordinate clause more often than English does.

Here, sataako begins a subordinate clause after riippumatta siitä:

• riippumatta siitä, sataako

So the comma is standard Finnish punctuation.

Even if English might sometimes omit a comma in similar places, Finnish typically keeps it.

It can often be understood as whether it is raining in the situation being discussed, but Finnish present tense is broader than English present progressive.

So sataa can mean:

• it rains
• it is raining

And sataako can mean:

• whether it rains
• whether it is raining

In this sentence, the natural meaning is usually regardless of whether it’s raining.

Yes, at least the middle part is very useful to memorize as a chunk:

• riippumatta siitä, ... = regardless of whether / regardless of the fact that ...

For example:

• Lähdemme riippumatta siitä, sataako. = We’re leaving regardless of whether it’s raining.
• Teen sen riippumatta siitä, mitä muut ajattelevat. = I’ll do it regardless of what others think.

Memorizing this pattern will help you a lot, because it appears often in written and formal spoken Finnish.

Yes. Finnish has several ways to express a similar idea. For example:

• Jatkamme matkaa, vaikka sataisi.
• Jatkamme matkaa, vaikka sataa.

These also mean something like We continue the journey even if it rains / even if it’s raining.

However, riippumatta siitä, sataako sounds a bit more formal and more literally like regardless of whether it’s raining.

So the original sentence is perfectly natural, especially in more neutral or formal language.