Saturday's weather in Estonia mild, much colder conditions on their way

The change of year brings a significant change of weather in Estonia as the mild weather continues Saturday, but will be followed by a cold snap.
This not only brings a white New Year's Eve this time around, following a thaw either side of the Christmas break, but will see average temperatures fall by almost 25 degrees in the space of less than a week.
Overnight Friday to Saturday, a new area of low pressure developed over the Baltic Sea and will influence Estonia's weather as it passes in an eastwards direction during the day.
This will bring rain and sleet again, though cold airflows in the evening will transform this to snow in places, and provide for some hazardous road conditions.
Friday night to Saturday morning meanwhile was mild, with temperatures above zero across Estonia, and rain and sleet, driven by southwesterlies, falling nationwide.

The same conditions will prevail in the morning of Saturday, December 30, with no change on ambient temperatures (+1 to +3 degrees Celsius), while precipitation will fall as rain or sleet (the latter particularly in the Northeast), and cloud to cover the whole country.

Practically the only change expected during the day concerns wind direction, thanks to the low pressure system; the breezes will swing round to Westerlies in the Southwestern portion of the country, Southeasterlies on the shores of Peipsi järv, and Northeasterlies off the Northwest coast. Wind speeds will pick up somewhat too, to 6 to 12 meters per second, in gusts, on the West coast, of up to 16 meters per second.
The winds will intensify further Saturday evening, wheeling round to become North(east)erlies on Estonia's North coast, though the mercury will stubbornly stay above the zero mark until well into the evening, when it will eventually settle at zero, at least in Northern Estonia.
Again, this will make for slippery conditions on roads and sidewalks.

From Sunday, the last day of 2023, average temperatures will start their inexorable downward movement, from -6 degrees on New Year's eve, to as low as -23 degrees on the night of Wednesday, January 3. Daytime temperatures will be barely any different, dropping from -3 degrees on Sunday, to -10 degrees on New Year's Day, on average, then dropping by a similar increment to -18 degrees on Tuesday; -20 degrees on Wednesday.
By that time, however, conditions will be dry. Snowfall is forecast just for December 31 and January 1.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte