A mild New Year’s Eve

The mild and wet weather is continuing here in northern Europe. The first snow usually arrives around New Years, but the temperature is till hovering a round 8-10 degrees, so the heavy winter coat and boots remains in the closet. Due to the mild weather there is no ice in the Baltic Sea, something that’s very rare.

Northern Europeans were poised to celebrate the passage to the New Year in a way that is out of the ordinary for them: with an ice-free Baltic Sea.

"It's quite unusual that we welcome the New Year with no ice in the Baltic Sea," Tarmo Kouts, senior researcher at the Estonian Marine Institute, told AFP.