Baltic Cyclone Kills Two, Cuts Power to Half a Million

A powerful cyclone swept across the Baltic region over the weekend, claiming two lives and leaving roughly half a million people without electricity in Latvia and Lithuania. The storm brought heavy rain and wind gusts exceeding 67 mph in Riga, the Latvian capital, and dumped half the average monthly rainfall in many areas within a single day.

In Latvia, one person died in Jelgava when part of a building collapsed. The storm disrupted mobile services and affected rail and public transport as trees and debris fell onto infrastructure. Riga airport warned of possible flight delays or rerouting on Sunday morning due to overnight conditions.

Lithuania also reported one fatality after a falling tree struck a person, with more than 200,000 residents losing power. Estonia experienced strong winds, particularly in western and northern regions and its islands, leading to ferry cancellations and train delays from Latvia and Lithuania.

The storm's impact extended into northeastern Poland, where over 100,000 customers were left without electricity. Andris Viksna of the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Center called it the most severe storm in Latvia since 2005. He noted that while the role of climate change cannot yet be fully assessed, it is plausible that human-caused warming intensified the rainfall. Conditions were expected to improve by Sunday and return to normal by Monday.