Christmas will be white in most parts of Latvia, according to forecasts of the Latvian Centre for Environment, Geology and Meteorology.
During the last two weeks, rain and positive temperatures have melted the snow cover in almost all of Latvia, but changes are expected in the coming days – it will snow in many places, which will result in a white Christmas.
Cooler air will flow into Latvia over the weekend and temperatures will drop, with night-time lows below freezing in many places. Roads will become slippery.
Winds are also expected to pick up on some days, gusting up to 15-19 meters per second.
The winter solstice, which symbolizes the beginning of the astronomical winter, will be celebrated on the longest night of the year, on December 21-22. Friday will be the shortest day of the year, lasting just six hours 43 minutes in Riga – the sun rises at 9:00 and sets at 15:44.
Clouds will cover most of the sky at the end of the week, but it will clear in places. In the coming days, several areas of precipitation will cross the country from the west, bringing mostly wet snow, sleet and rain.
Overnight Friday, snow cover will increase by 5 to 9 centimeters in eastern areas, but during the day snow cover will increase by five centimeters in the west. The snow cover will continue to increase gradually and by Christmas Eve most of the country will be covered in snow.
On Friday and Saturday, temperatures will remain in the -2…+3 degree C range, while on Sunday night the thermometer will drop to -1 to -6 degrees C.
Source: BNS
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