Lithuania Natural Environment

Lithuania, with a size of about 65,000 sq km, is situated in northern Europe on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast and Poland to the south.  It also shares its border with the Russian territory of Kaliningrad to the southwest (the former German East Prussia), and has a Baltic coastline of 198 km which is lined with sandy beaches and full-grown forests.  The port Klaipeda is ice-free. 

The country’s landscape was shaped by the glaciers of the last Ice Age, scattered with lowlands and highlands. The central region of the country is characterised by fertile plains, separating the eastern region which has higher elevation (up to 297 m above sea level), and the western region which has highlands.  The land is covered by over four thousands lakes although many are more like ponds.  There are about 1,000 rivers, the longest one being the Nemunas which flows from Belarus and is about 900 km long.

About 28% of the land is covered with forests which grow predominantly pine, spruce and birch.

With its high altitude and situated between Baltic Sea and the Asian / European land mass, the country’s climate on the whole is relatively mild as it is more influenced by the sea in the west and more by the land in the east.  As an indication, around Klaipeda on the west coast, the average January temperature is around 1.7°C in January and 17.9°C in July, whereas further inland near the Belarus border the temperature is about 2°C in January and 18°C in July. Average annual precipitation is about 72 cm along the Baltic coast and 49 cm in the east.