Lithuania’s storms wrecked Palanga Bridge and drove ships ashore

LRT recalled Lithuania’s most powerful storms, including the 1967 hurricane-force storm that destroyed Palanga Bridge, flooded streets in Klaipėda and felled millions of cubic metres of forest.

Donatas Valiukas, head of the Climate and Research Division at the Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service, said the storm that swept across the country the previous weekend would go down in history. Although severe storms are uncommon in Lithuania, the country has experienced several destructive events, some of which claimed lives.

The 1967 storm

Valiukas highlighted the hurricane-force winds that struck Lithuania on October 17, 1967. The storm brought violent winds and rough seas, destroyed Palanga Bridge and washed away dunes. In Klaipėda’s old town, the Danė River flooded streets and basements, while large numbers of trees were uprooted.

The storm, known as Lena after Swedish meteorologists gave it the name, was forecast to bring winds of up to 32 to 33 metres per second. However, the Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service said the storm was so severe that it may have reached the equivalent of a Category 2 or 3 hurricane.

Winds of up to 40 metres per second were recorded in Klaipėda on October 18. Individual gusts may have reached 55 metres per second, according to the service. The storm was stronger than the Anatolijus and Ervinas storms that later struck Lithuania.

The Klaipėda shipping channel was badly damaged, and the water level rose to 1.86 metres. Across the Žemaitija region, an estimated 3 million to 4 million cubic metres of timber was blown down, roughly the amount that had been planned for felling over three years.

Anatolijus drove a ship ashore

The Anatolijus storm, which struck in early December 1999, is also still widely remembered. Strong gusts broke trees, damaged buildings and power lines, and destroyed the sundial in Nida.

Wind gusts reached up to 40 metres per second in some places, with speeds of up to 38 metres per second recorded in Klaipėda, 37 metres per second in Šilutė, and 32 metres per second in Lazdijai and Vėžaičiai in Klaipėda district.

The winds were comparable to those of a weak Category 1 hurricane. The storm also produced waves up to 4 to 6 metres high. A Norwegian ship, the Seines, which had been adrift at sea, was washed ashore near Palanga. It was not pulled back into the sea until April 2000, after a channel was dug through the seabed.

Ervinas left up to 180,000 people without power

Another unusually powerful storm, known as Ervinas, hit western Lithuania on January 8 and 9, 2005. Wind speeds reached up to 35 metres per second on the coast, damaging dunes and forests. The Danė flooded Klaipėda’s old town, and many residents were left without electricity.

Meteorologists said the storm reached approximately Category 1 or 2 hurricane strength. Gusts in Lithuania’s coastal zone reached 34 to 35 metres per second, while about 150,000 to 180,000 people lost electricity. The outages took six days to repair.