40 surprising facts about the climate of Russia

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

We know little about the climate in Russia. We are sure that St. Petersburg is the rainiest city, and the driest city is in the south. But it’s not at all like that.

1. The difference between the average annual summer and winter temperatures in Russia is 36 ° C. In Canada, the difference is only 28.75 ° C.

2. The coldest place in Russia where people live is the village of Oymyakon in Yakutia. The average January temperature is minus 50 ° С, and the absolute minimum recorded in 1926 reached -71, 2 ° С.

3. The hottest place in Russia is in Kalmykia. At the Utta meteorological station on July 12, 2010, a record air temperature was recorded - plus 45, 4 ° С.

4. In Moscow in 1940 the absolute minimum temperature was recorded. Thermometers dropped to -40, 1 ° C. The capital has renewed its absolute maximum relatively recently. 38, 2 ° С was recorded in July 2010.

5. On the southern coast of Crimea, a Mediterranean climate prevails, comparable to Greece and Bulgaria. The air in the summer in the region warms up to 30 ° С, and the water - up to 21-22 ° С.

6. The climate of Karelia and Finland is almost identical. The average temperature in July is about 17 ° C.

7. Ai-Petri is one of the most foggy places in Crimea and Russia. In 1970, 215 foggy days were recorded here. The most foggy place in the world is the island of Newfoundland.

8. The village of Sheregesh in the Kemerovo region is a good alternative to European ski resorts. The average winter temperature is minus 17 ° С. The snow can be up to 4 meters thick.

9. St. Petersburg is not the most rainy and foggy city in Russia. It drops out only 661 mm per year. Severo-Kurilsk takes the first place in terms of precipitation. It receives 1,844 mm of precipitation annually.

10. The least amount of rain falls in the city of Verkhoyansk (Yakutia) - only 178 mm per year. But the snow stays here for more than 200 days a year.

11. In the same Verkhoyansk in 1911, only 45 mm of precipitation fell. At the same time, a record annual minimum precipitation was recorded for Russia.

12. The sunniest city in Russia - Ulan-Ude (Buryatia), the average annual sunshine in it is 2797 hours. Khabarovsk is in second place - there are 2449 hours of sunshine there.

13. Russia is the only country in the world through which 8 climatic zones pass. For comparison, only 5 pass through the United States.

14. Cape Taigonos in the Magadan Region is the windiest place in Russia. Wind gusts here can reach 58 m / s or 208 km / h. On the Treadmill scale, this corresponds to a hurricane wind.

15. In 1908, there was the largest flood in Moscow. The Moscow River rose by 9 meters, the water flooded about 16 km² of the city's territory.

16. Tornadoes are not limited to America. In 1904, Moscow and its suburbs suffered from a tornado. Lublino, Karacharovo, Annenhof grove, buildings in Lefortovo, Basmanny part, Sokolniki were destroyed. 800 people were injured.

17. Since 1703, over 300 floods have been recorded in St. Petersburg. During the strongest, in November 1824, the Neva rose 4.21 meters higher than the resident.

18. Freezing rain is not typical for Russia, but in 2010 in Moscow it left 400,000 people without electricity, de-energized Domodedovo airport and knocked down 4, 6 thousand trees.

19. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the average annual temperature in Russia has increased by 1 ° C over the past 100 years. Over the last 20 years of the 20th century, the temperature has increased by 0.4 ° C.

20. Winter 2014-2015 was the warmest on record. The seasonal temperature anomaly was 4-7 ° С, which is 0.5 ° С higher than the 1962 record.

21. Because of the Little Ice Age in 1601, the Moskva River froze over on 15 August.

22. Alexey Maloletko, professor at Tomsk State University, claims that in the winter of 1778 in the Lower Volga region, the winter temperature was so low that the birds froze in flight and fell dead.

23. The winter of 1759-1760 in St. Petersburg was so cold that mercury froze in the thermometers. This allowed scientists to make a unique discovery and fix the solidification temperature of mercury - minus 38, 8 ° C. Up to this point, it was believed that mercury is not a metal.

24. In 2012, the Black Sea froze over. The last time such a climatic anomaly was observed in 1977, when the Black Sea froze over the coast of Odessa "from coast to horizon."

25. The hottest summer on record was the 2010 summer. In Moscow, the average monthly temperature in July rose by 7, 7 degrees above the previous record. The heat caused forest fires, and the movement of ships on large rivers was suspended due to their shallowing.

26. In 2012, the abnormally high heat lasted from April to September.

27. One of the most severe droughts was observed in 1370. According to the chroniclers, the heat caused a massive death of animals and birds.

28. There is a myth that the Germans were unable to take Moscow during the Great Patriotic War because of the cold. In fact, the temperature in December 1941 did not exceed minus 20 ° С (in contrast to the abnormally cold 1940 year - in January the temperature reached -42, 1 ° С).

29. The same myth exists about the war of 1812. In fact, winter in 1812 came later than usual, the temperature before the battle near Krasnoye was about -5 ° C, and in the next 10 days it became warmer. The real cold (-20 ° C) hit in early December, when Napoleon had already crossed the Berezina River.

30. But the terrible cold during the Northern War is a historical fact. The winter of 1708 was the coldest winter in Europe in 500 years, and the Swedish troops were left without supplies.

31. During the Great Fire of 1812, a rare and dangerous atmospheric phenomenon occurred in Moscow - a fiery tornado. It occurs when several large fires are combined into one. The temperature inside such a tornado can reach 1000 ° C.

32. The largest hail fell in Russia in 1904, during the Moscow tornado. The weight of individual hailstones reached 400-600 grams. According to eyewitnesses, they even cut through thick branches of trees.

33. In Sochi, on average, there are 50 thunderstorms per year. The same number of thunderstorms occur per year in Lake Charles, Louisiana (USA).

34. On December 31, 1968 in Siberia, in the town of Agata, the highest atmospheric pressure was recorded - 813 mm Hg.

35. In 1940, over the village of Meshchera in the Nizhny Novgorod region, it rained from coins from the time of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich.

36. In April 1944, the largest snowflakes in the history of Russia fell in Moscow - they were the size of a palm.

37. There are dust storms in Russia. Most often they occur in the Astrakhan region, in the east of the Volgograd region, in Kalmykia, in Tuva, in the Altai Territory and in the Trans-Baikal Territory.

38. For the first time a tornado in Russia is mentioned in the annals of 1406. The Trinity Chronicle reports that the whirlwind lifted a harnessed cart in the region of Nizhny Novgorod into the air and carried it to the other side of the Volga.

39. In Russia, the largest snow cover was recorded on the Kamchatka Peninsula - 2, 89 meters. For comparison, the snow cover in Moscow does not exceed 78 cm during the winter.

40. In Russia, you can see water tornadoes. Unlike ordinary waterspouts, waterspouts are not necessarily accompanied by a hurricane and "dissolve" after 15-30 minutes. Waterspouts can be seen on the Black Sea, and during the heat wave of 2010, this phenomenon was noticed on the Volga.