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There has been no climatic winter in Kyiv for three years in a row

Author:
Iryna Perepechko
Date:

Kyiv has not had a climatic winter for three years in a row. These are the years 2022, 2023, and 2024.

This was reported by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.

Climatic winter in Ukraine begins when the average daily air temperature drops below 0 °C and remains stable within these indicators. And in 2022, 2023 and 2024, the average air temperature for the winter period was above 0 °C. All because of global warming.

"Ukraine is one of the regions of the planet where the temperature increase has occurred at the highest rate over the past decade. Over the past 60 years, the average temperature increase in our territory has occurred almost 2.5 times faster than in the world as a whole," said Svitlana Krakowska, head of the laboratory of applied climatology at the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute.

According to her, in 1961-2023, the temperature in Ukraine increased by 0.41 degrees over ten years, and in Europe — by 0.34 degrees. The main warming occurs primarily in the winter period.

Currently, Ukraine is characterized by temperature fluctuations in the winter period: from +5 °C to -5 °C. Short-term extreme frosts or abnormally strong blizzards may periodically occur — these are also consequences of climate change.

Therefore, stable snow cover that lasts for a long time is rarely formed in Ukraine now. This also negatively affects ecosystems

For example, in the Carpathians, a shortage of snow can negatively affect spruce forests, which are an important part of the regionʼs ecosystem.
. In particular, there are fewer water reserves, which negatively affects plant growth, soil fertility and crop yields. The latter can negatively affect various sectors of the Ukrainian economy.

  • In Kyiv, 2024 was the warmest year on record. The average annual temperature in 2024 was +11.4 °C, which is 2.4 °C above the climate norm. Temperature records were constantly set throughout the year.
  • In 2024, climate change caused annual global temperatures to exceed the internationally agreed target of 1.5°C for the first time. The average temperature last year was 1.6°C above pre-industrial levels
    The pre-industrial temperature level is the average global temperature observed on Earth before the beginning of the industrial era (approximately until the middle of the 19th century, usually taken to be the period 1850–1900).
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