Kyiv's winter without a winter, as reported by climatologists
A look back at the climatologists' report from 2 March 2020 and the wider news picture around it.
What did a winter without winter look like in Kyiv? On 3 March 2020, the question was still fresh, because climatologists had reported the day before that Kyiv had gone through its first season in 140 years without a meteorological winter. The air temperature in the city had not dropped below -10°C.
The report, dated 2 March 2020, set out the finding plainly: for the first time in 140 years, the capital's winter did not meet the meteorological definition of one.
A wider news picture
The same days brought tense news from further afield. On 27 February 2020, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg held talks amid the escalation in Idlib involving Syria and Russia. The Northwestern Syria offensive had been under way since December 2019.
On 28 February 2020, Russia deployed two frigates, the Admiral Makarov and the Admiral Grigorovich, to the Eastern Mediterranean off the Syrian coast. Both were armed with Kalibr cruise missiles.
The climate finding for Kyiv and the military moves in the Mediterranean belong to different subjects. Set side by side, they show what the news looked like in the first days of March 2020: a measured scientific observation about a Ukrainian city and a fast-moving diplomatic and military situation on NATO's southern flank.
