MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF AUGUST 2023
Air temperature
In Russia, this August turned out to be the warmest in the history of regular meteorological observations since 1891. In the first half of the month, the weather in the ETR was hot, and the decade-averaged temperatures exceeded the normal values by 2-5 or more degrees. New daily temperature maxima, some of them in excess of +40°, were set both in the south of the ETR in the Rostov, Volgograd and Krasnodar Regions, in the Krasnodar Territory, the Crimea and the republics of the North Caucasus, and in the north or north-west in the Arkhangelsk, Pskov, Novgorod and Kaliningrad Regions as well as in the Republic of Komi, the Novaya Zemlya and the Volga region. The weather in the third decade became noticeably colder, even with the frosts in the north of Central Russia, but still remained very hot in the south, producing temperature maxima again and again.
The Asian region was occupied by the heat for most of the month: there, the record-breaking temperatures were logged in Siberia, Yakutia, Primorye, Sakhalin and Kolyma, and the thermometers often stuck to above 30-35°. In the outcome, this August was deemed the hottest in the meteorological chronicle of the ATR.
MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHEN HEMISPHERE AS OF JULY 2023
Air temperature
Cold weather in the ETR seamlessly migrated from June to the next summer month. In the first decade of July, negative anomalies of the decade-averaged air temperatures were -1…-2° or higher in the north-west, and anomalous heat was recorded in the Upper-Volga and Trans-Volga regions only where it reached +40° during midday hours and begot new daily temperature maxima.
In the second decade, the colds grew even colder and extended to the entire ETR save for the Arctic latitudes, with anomalies reaching -2…-3° or lower values in the central region and with frosts in Karelia and in the west of the Arkhangelsk Region. In the third decade, the colds became somewhat milder, but the decade-averaged air temperature in most of the ETR was still below, or close to, its normal value. In the last days of July, unprecedented high temperatures along with new daily maxima in excess of +30° were recorded in the north-east of the ETR.
The picture was completely different to the east of Volga, viz., in the Cis-Urals and in Siberia: there, the decade-averaged temperatures were 2-6° higher than normal in the first and third decades. New temperature maxima were reported in Bashkiria and in the Southern Urals, with a new annual maximum in Kurgan among them. In the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the weather was abnormally hot at first (with +5° or higher anomalies), but the anomalies became negative (-2…-4°) when cold polar air intruded there in the second decade.