This Week's Weather: More Records Fall in Latvia, Estonia Sets 2014 High Temp
While Latvia set consecutive all-time heat records Sunday and today, breaking a mark from 1943, Estonia's weather should be more like an ordinary heat wave - temperatures in the 27-32 C range, with the national record of 35.6 C (Võru, 1992) not in peril, said the National Weather Service. That didn't keep a new annual high from being posted on Monday.
Lääne-Nigula in western Estonia set a new 2014 high of 33.5 C Monday.
Meanwhile, Public Broadcasting of Latvia reported that Ventspils reported 36.7 C yesterday and 37.2 C today. (For American trivia buffs, it has not reached 100 F in the Baltic states during the time that records have been kept. Besides Latvia, Lithuania has also exceeded human body temperature, though, with an all-time high of 37.5 C.)
In Estonia, things should not be quite that hot this week, with temperatures angling up into the 30s - in the south and west at least - and cooling off to the mid- to upper-teens at night. The pattern that should repeat all week until Thursday afternoon, when raindrops enter the picture (25-50 percent chance of precipitation). Rain and thunder shoudl stick around into Saturday.
Despite the sustained heat - it has been warm or hot for a month straight - most forests are not in the highest category of fire danger. That could change with large patches of the country in the second-highest category.