Climatic winter has not been recorded in Kyiv for the last three years (2022—2024).
That’s according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, Ukrinform reports.
The ministry notes that winters in recent years in Ukraine have changed significantly. Instead of traditional frost and blizzards, the weather now often resembles late fall or early spring. Warm weather, long periods with no freezing temperatures, and temperature records have become commonplace mainly due to global warming.
“Ukraine is one of the regions of the planet where over the past decade the temperature increase came at the highest rate. Over the past 60 years, the increase in average temperature in our territory has occurred almost 2.5 times faster than across the world as a whole. We are even ahead of Europe as the growth rate of the average annual temperature in Ukraine in 1961–2023 stood at 0.41 degrees per decade, and in Europe – at 0.34 degrees. Moreover, the main warming occurs primarily in the winter period,” said Svitlana Krakovska, head of the laboratory of applied climatology at the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute.
Climatic winter in Ukraine begins when the average daily air temperature drops below 0 °C and remains there. A quarter of a century ago, it came practically according to the actual calendar. And now, due to global warming, there is practically no traditional winter feel. According to the Central Geophysical Observatory, climatic winter has not been recorded in Kyiv for the last three years: 2022, 2023, and 2024. In these years, the average air temperature in the winter period was above 0°C.
“Currently, Ukraine sees a trend of temperature fluctuations in winter from +5°C to -5°C degrees. However, against the background of a fairly high temperature, short-term waves of extreme cold or abnormally strong snow storms paralyzing infrastructure may occur, also being manifestations of climate change. Due to global warming, the climate has become “unstable” and unpredictable as deviations from the norm are significantly increasing. That is, against the background of a snowless winter, anomalous weather phenomena can occur, where warm temperatures in a few days are replaced by short-term, but very strong frosts that break through to us from the Arctic,” the researcher explains.
So, stable snow cover is rarely formed and it never lasts long. A warm winter leads to snow melting quickly and unevenly, which increases the risk of spring floods.
Snow shortage also affects various sectors of the Ukrainian economy. In particular, the yield across various crops is on the decline. After all, without snow, plants often freeze while the soil lacks moisture. Winter tourism, which is an important source of income for mountainous regions, is also suffering.
As reported, January 19 is celebrated as Snow Day. The holiday was initiated by winter sports enthusiasts.
