Spatiotemporal variability of wave climate in the Gulf of Riga

•The SWAN model was calibrated and run over a high-resolution nested grid in the Gulf of Riga, Baltic Sea.•Wave hindcast is performed for the climatic period 1990–2021.•Wave climate in the gulf is milder and more intermittent than in the Baltic Sea.•Wave fields are predominantly fetch-limited windseas.•No long-term trend or distinct decadal variation identified in the gulf.