RIGA, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Latvia was hit with the severest cold spell in 12 years this weekend, as a weather station in Latvia's southeastern city of Daugavpils recorded a temperature of -32 degrees Celsius, the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Center reported on Saturday.
In most parts of the country, temperatures ranged between -16 and -26 degrees, with the warmest weather, -7 degrees, reported in Kolka, northwestern Latvia. In the capital Riga, it was -16 degrees early on Saturday morning.
While social network users shared picturesque images of white winter landscapes, and fans of winter sports rushed to try out Latvia's ski slopes and tracks as well as public skating rinks, authorities warned of the dangers extremely low temps can pose to human health and their dwellings.
Heating bills and shortages of wood pellets have emerged as some of the most serious issues caused by the unusually cold winter. With the heating bills for December, which was also quite cold, expected to spike by 30 to 70 percent, the government is mulling assistance to the least protected groups of society.
Meanwhile, homeowners complain that wood pellets have become hard to come by in stores. Producers of this popular fuel say that the amount ordered by distributors ahead of the heating season was not sufficient to meet the current high demand.
Although Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina says that there is no energy emergency in the country, Economics Minister Viktors Valainis has been tasked with coming up with proposals on how to help people weather the harsh winter.
Latvia's emergency services, the Fire and Rescue Service and the Emergency Medical Service, on Friday called on people to handle heating equipment with particular caution and to take care of their own and others' safety, as long exposure to low temperatures can result in hypothermia, frostbite and even death. On Jan. 22, Riga East University Hospital reported that it was treating seven patients with severe frostbite.
Meteorologists note, however, that such freezing temperatures at the end of January and beginning of February are nothing unusual in Latvia and that all cold-weather records are expected to stand after this chilly weekend.
"Such cold spells are becoming increasingly rare, and when a wintry freeze hits us, we are no longer prepared for it," says Toms Bricis, a meteorologist and weatherman at Latvian public television.
According to Bricis, in previous decades, cold temperatures as low as -30 degrees were much more common, and in the last century, such continental Arctic air from Russia would have brought much colder temperatures to Latvia.
In recent decades, however, global warming has made winters in Latvia much milder and people have forgotten what a regular winter in Latvia is. The last time a weather station in Latvia recorded a temperature below -30 degrees was five years ago, in 2021.
In previous decades, -30 degrees were much more common. The last time the mercury in Riga fell to -30 degrees was in 1994, but this weekend, the capital city will not have temperatures anywhere near that low. The coldest early morning temperatures in Riga are likely to be around -20 degrees over the weekend, the meteorologists said. ■