Climate-related economic losses

The mean temperature in Lithuania is 7.4 °C, which is 0.5 °C warmer than in 1981–2010 and 1.2 °C warmer than in 1961–1990. The number of extremely hot days (≥ 30 °C) has increased more than threefold. Meanwhile, the number of frosty days when the daily minimum air temperature drops to -20 °C or below has decreased significantly. Due to climate change, precipitation patterns in Lithuania are changing in various ways: rainfall is increasing in some places and decreasing in others.

With regard to maximum wind speeds during 1991–2023, no significant changes in long-term trends have been identified. However, it should be noted that the frequency of winds with hurricane force may increase because of climate warming. In 2021, there were 21 extreme and 1 catastrophic meteorological events and 13 extreme hydrological events, while in 2022 there were 23, 2 and 15, respectively, and in 2023 there were 21, 1 and 25, respectively. Economic losses due to adverse weather events in Lithuania are on the rise, reaching EUR 36 per person in 2023, according to the latest European Environment Agency data. Lithuania does not yet have a disaster loss information system that includes the climate-related economic loss indicators used by the European Environment Agency, but it plans to have more data available on such losses at the national level in the future.