Meteorological winter has started in most of Latvia, according to the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Center.
Since December 4, average daily temperatures have been below zero in many parts of Vidzeme, Latgale, Zemgale, and Kurzeme, marking the start of meteorological winter.
The meteorological autumn is still continuing in Rīga and many parts of the Kurzeme coast.
In the past two years, meteorological winter has started much earlier in Latvia – as early as mid-November.
There will be no major changes in the weather over the next few days – it will be slightly colder at night, with temperatures near freezing during the day, 4 C to 6 C on the coast, but on Thursday the wind will turn from the north-west and become stronger, gusting to around 20 meters per second on the coast.
On Thursday and Friday, it will snow in most parts of Latvia, with the possibility of heavy snow and several centimeters of snow in parts of western Vidzeme and eastern Zemgale.
It will also get colder in the second half of the working week. Overnight on Thursday and Friday, temperatures will drop to -5 C to 0 in most parts of the country, and even around -10 C in eastern parts.
Temperatures will rise again over the weekend and next week is likely to be much warmer in Latvia, with all the snow melting and temperatures on the coast reaching 5 C to 8 C.
There is little chance of frost and persistent snow over Christmas.
