CYCLONE KILLS TWO, LEAVES HALF MILLION WITHOUT POWER IN BALTIC REGION

A powerful cyclone brought heavy rain and strong winds across Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and northeastern Poland on Saturday and into Sunday morning, killing two people and leaving approximately half a million residents without electricity. One person died in Jelgava, central Latvia, when part of a building collapsed on Saturday, whilst another died in Lithuania after being struck by a falling tree. Wind speeds exceeded 67 mph in Riga, the Latvian capital, and several stations recorded half of their average monthly rainfall in a single day.

More than 250,000 people in Latvia lost electricity, with over 200,000 without power in Lithuania on Sunday morning. Mobile phone services were disrupted across the region, and rail and public transport services were affected by fallen trees and debris. Riga airport announced that flights faced potential delays or rerouting because of the severe overnight weather. Estonia's western, northern and island regions were most affected, with ferry services to islands disrupted and trains from Latvia and Lithuania delayed. In northeastern Poland, over 100,000 people lost power.

According to Andris Viksna from the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre, official records suggest this was the most severe storm in Latvia since 2005 in terms of overall impact. Viksna stated that whilst the contribution of climate change cannot yet be properly assessed, "it is plausible that human-caused climate change may have intensified the rainfall associated with the cyclone." Conditions were expected to improve on Sunday and certainly by Monday.