Has the weather in Latvia gone crazy?

Sun, appear!

But here’s what almost everyone in their native Latvia has been talking about lately – the weather not only brings surprises, but the climate is becoming completely unbearable. This is understandable.

Abnormal snowfall began already in mid-November, which even in the capital drove residents crazy when they had to fight through half-meter-high snowdrifts.

In December, the entire sky was covered in solid gray, and on many days the sun broke through the leaden clouds only for a couple of hours. I couldn’t help but remember how in the Far North, like Yakutia, they even organize national holidays of “meeting the sun,” counting its presence in the sky literally by the minute. Maybe it’s time in Latvia too; and everything goes that way…

Then throughout the winter there was either a thaw, then another furious snowfall, or dank weather with hurricane winds. Everyone was literally looking at the calendar with prayer in their eyes, dreaming of spring.
But March also turned out to be strange: it suddenly became warmer, which both people and stray cats rejoiced at, then it suddenly rained, then it got cold, and then the weather forecasters “delighted” everyone: they say that more hail/snow is expected, but winter is not letting up.

Okay March, but snowfall at the end of April? This hasn’t happened for a long time.

Now everyone is already dreaming of summer, but remembering that last year it was really sunny, dry and comfortable only in June before Ligo, and then there were cold rains for two long-awaited summer months, they immediately become sad, realizing that this summer could be the same disgusting. For example, in the north of the Khabarovsk Territory – in an area that is risky for a person’s normal life, almost the same thing is happening, where summer is really only a month, and eleven months is a nightmare.

Is the fantasy real: Latvia has suddenly shifted geographically to a more terrible place? The bb.lv portal talked about this with the head of the climate and numerical modeling department of the Latvian Center for Environment, Geology and Meteorology, Svetlana Aniskevich, who during the conversation diligently convinced the journalist that the weather in Latvia was not crazy, everything was normal, in the Baltic way .

It’s getting warmer, but the cold doesn’t go away

“Yes, last winter was half a degree above the average climate norm,” says Svetlana Aniskevich to the bb.lv portal. — The weather is what is outside the window now, but the climate is generally long-term. And the climate is really changing.

But Firstlyin Latvia, for example, there is no clear distinction between the rainy season and the dry season, so anything can happen both in the warm winter and in the summer, when everyone wants more sun, but it rains for a long time.

Secondly, in our region there cannot be stable weather – all winters are the same, and every summer is like the previous one. One winter here can be warmer, another colder. One summer can be rainy and the next sunny and dry. And just because there were frequent cold rains last summer doesn’t mean it will be the same.

Yes, last winter was snowier than usual. For example, in the winter of 2019–2020 there was almost no snow in Riga at all. But in general, if we look at average weather indicators, the climate is changing so that winters are getting warmer, and there may be more precipitation,” notes Svetlana.

So where is the warming?

Yes, that’s all true, but last winter, as too many people noted, felt like it was very difficult for us.

“It is obvious that with climate change, the frequency of extreme events, for example, temperature fluctuations, is increasing,” the interlocutor warns.

It might have been a warmer winter, but why would farmers now tell scary stories about unusually large areas of winter rapeseed and wheat being frozen? So, where, one might ask, is the warming mentioned?

“Society will have to prepare for climate change, because it will affect all areas of life,” the expert notes. – And the peasants need to think: maybe they will have to change the crops they grow – the usual ones may not be suitable in the current conditions of a sharp change in weather – then it suddenly thaws, then it freezes too much…

Yes, about March and April: weather forecasters could not make forecasts with 100% accuracy either last year or this year. Spring is still a very changeable time. As for last winter, yes, there were weather changes, but overall it was not extreme. Perhaps people have already become unaccustomed to real winters and the abundance of snow, so the first thing they do is immediately surprised.

In Latvia, from 1961 to 1990, the climatic temperature norm in winter has already increased by two degrees. And summer should warm up more and more every year – become less rainy and drier: from an average temperature of almost 17 degrees, by the end of the century it should warm up to 21, which is very significant.

Has the weather gone crazy in Latvia? I do not agree. It is changing all over the world, and many today do not recognize the weather in certain countries in a certain season. And this applies not only to the Baltic region,” Svetlana Aniskevich told the bb.lv portal.