Only two names come up when talking about powerful storms in Lithuania – Anatolijus and Ervinas. The former hit the country in December 1999, while Ervinas caused damage to Lithuania’s coast and north in January 2005.
Hurricane Anatolijus is still considered the most destructive natural disaster in Lithuania. Roofs were torn off and Klaipėda streets were flooded. The storm caused two casualties.
In Panevėžys, the already decorated Christmas tree was damaged and the roofs of houses were ripped off. It was the overturning trees that caused the most damage. Meanwhile, in Palanga, a bridge was damaged and in Nida, a sundial built just four years ago fell.
At the time, the storm was described as “one of the worst in Europe for a century”. In Lithuania, wind gusts reached 38-40 m/s, and in other areas around 30 m/s.
Zenonas Ružinskas, Deputy Director of Lietuvos Energija AB, the state-owned energy provider at the time, said that about one-tenth of the electricity grid had been damaged, and preliminary estimates put the total damage at 30 million litai (around 8.69 million euros, without taking inflation into account).
At the same time, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden were battered by gusts of up to 50 m/s Twenty people died and the damage in Denmark alone was estimated at 2 billion US dollars.
Anatolijus was followed by two other cyclones in the same month that did not reach Lithuania. On December 25, Lothar reached France, quickly followed by storm Martin, causing as many as 140 casualties.
Lothar's journey covered France and Germany, while Martin travelled through France, Spain, Switzerland, and Italy, reaching a record wind speed of 72 m/s. These figures are impressive even when compared to Milton, which battered Florida earlier this month with wind gusts of 57 m/s.
Compared to Anatolijus, Hurricane Ervinas in 2005 was much calmer. Although the Lithuanian coastline suffered, with wind gusts reaching up to 35 m/s, Latvia and Estonia were hit hardest.
The hurricane struck the country on January 8–9, 2005, also causing flooding in Great Britain. In Lithuania, around 180,000 people were left without electricity.
In Šiauliai, an elderly woman on her way to church was struck by an overturned tree and seriously injured. In Mažeikiai, one-third of the church roof was torn off. The storm flooded several villages and the Šilutė–Rusnė road in the coastal area.
At the time, Ervinas was described as the worst storm in four decades in Latvia, leaving 60 percent of the country's population without electricity. At the time, waves reached 12 metres in the gulf separating Finland from Estonia.
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